IUSTI Regions: Europe

IUSTI-Europe Guidelines

Report and Activities 2007

by Keith Radcliffe (IUSTI-Europe Regional Director).

The 23rd IUSTI-Europe Congress on Sexually Transmitted Infections, which took place in Cavtat near Dubrovnik in Croatia in October 2007, managed to match the extremely high standard set by this series of meetings in recent years - in Vienna, Mykonos and, last year, in Versailles.  All credit must be given to the Chairman of the International Scientific Committee, Derek Freedman (from Ireland) who managed to put together an innovative and fascinating programme which was truly as good as any STI congress in recent years.  Enormous praise and gratitude is also due to Mihael Skerlev from Croatia, who as the local organiser and Congress President managed to put on such a fantastic conference.  There were 550 registrations. 

Marco Cusini (Italian national representative and Congress President for IUSTI-Europe Milan 2008); Claudia Heller-Vitouch (IUSTI-Europe Secretary and Chair of the International Scientific Committee for Milan 2008); Mihael Skerlev (Congress President IUSTI-Europe Dubrovnik 2007); Branka Marinovic (Conference Secretary, Dubrovnik); Derek Freedman (Chair, International Scientific Committee, Dubrovnik).

For those people like myself, whose first visit it was to Croatia, it was also extremely pleasing to be able to visit Dubrovnik (the ancient Ragusa) which is known as “the pearl of the Adriatic”, and which is a UNESCO-designated world heritage site. The meeting was very pleasantly rounded off by a gala dinner held in the Ravelin Fortress adjacent to the old walls of Dubrovnik. The IUSTI-World President, Angelika Stary, thanked Professor Skerlev for his efforts, and awarded him the IUSTI silver medal in recognition of his achievements.

The IUSTI-Europe Board took the opportunity of the Cavtat congress to hold a most productive business meeting.

Some important decisions were taken at this meeting, in particular –

  • That the 2010 IUSTI-Europe Congress will take place in Tbilisi in Georgia in 2010.  The Congress President will be Josephe Kobakhidze, who is the national representative for Georgia on the Board.  This will be the first major international STI meeting held in a former Soviet Union country, and should therefore be an historic event.  At the time of writing it is very much hoped that the IUSTI-World Executive Committee will agree to designate this as a world meeting.
  • The 2011 Congress will be held in Riga, Latvia.  The Congress President will be Andris Rubins, the Latvian national representative.
  • The Board voted unanimously to move to establish IUSTI-Europe as a not-for-profit society registered in Estonia, in order to regularise its status and its financial affairs.  It is hoped that this work will be completed in the next twelve months.
     

In the meantime, we look forward with great excitement to the 2008 IUSTI-Europe Congress, which will take place in Milan, Italy, between 4-6 September 2008.  Please visit the congress website for further information. The Congress President will be Marco Cusini (Italian national representative), and the Chair of the International Scientific Committee is Claudia Heller-Vitouch, who is also the secretary of IUSTI-Europe.

Work on updating the European STD management guidelines continues.  A new guideline on proctitis has been produced and published (International Journal of STD & AIDS 2007; 18: 514-520).

The guideline on the management of pelvic inflammatory disease has been updated and published (International Journal of STD & AIDS 2007; 18: 662-666).

Work continues on updating the guidelines on: syphilis; gonorrhoea; chlamydia; HIV testing; urethritis.  All final and draft guidelines can be accessed on the IUSTI website.  I will be grateful for any suggestions for the revision or development of new guidelines.

The Guidelines Editorial Board now has official representatives from the European Dermatology Federation (EDF), the European Centres for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the European Office of the World Health Organisation (WHO-Europe) and the Union of European Medical Specialities (UEMS).

Keith Radcliffe

Updated by webmaster February 4th 2008