Hope Hotel, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, 16-17 June 2016

Two symposiums on surveillance-response systems (SRS) leading to tropical diseases elimination have taken place in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China – in June 2012 and in June 2014. The symposiums were co-sponsored by the National Institute of Parasitic Diseases (NIPD) of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), and the World Health Organization (WHO). The concept of SRS was introduced in the first symposium and published in the open-access journal Infectious Diseases of Poverty. As a result, further action plans based on the concept of SRS were included in the national elimination programme on tropical diseases. After the second symposium, additional actions promoting the SRS concept were introduced, particularly with respect to cooperation mechanisms with Africa and other Asian countries. Operations initiated include the China-Zanzibar pilot project on schistosomiasis elimination, the China-UK-Tanzania pilot project on malaria control and elimination, and an institution-based network on China-Africa cooperation for schistosomiasis elimination. In addition, ongoing research projects within the frame of the Regional Network on Asian Schistosomiasis and Other Helminth Zoonoses (RNAS+) have been maintained with new research projects promoted.

Triggered by the United Nations new Sustained Developing Goals (SDGs), which keep the focus on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), while enlarging this area to include efforts to end transmission of the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), it is now important to amalgamate ongoing activities and put forward future direction through pilot studies on better implementation of SRS in national research programmes. Therefore, the theme of the third symposium will be “Promotion and Application of Surveillance Response Systems in National Efforts to Control and Eliminate Tropical Diseases through Cooperation”, with focus on three topics, including (i) innovative technology to improve the SRS; (ii) application in national control and elimination programmes on schistosomiasis, malaria, echinococcosis and food-borne trematodiasis (FBT); and (iii) new South-South cooperation on pilot studies in application of SRS.

The third symposium is predicted to attract more than 150 Chinese and international scientists both from industrialized and developing countries and several agreements on pilot research/control cooperation are expected to be signed. The venue will include a back-to-back meeting of the working group for the Global Schistosomiasis Alliance (GSA) 14-15 June 2016 and an editorial dinner meeting for the Infectious Diseases of Poverty journal on 16 June 2016.

The tentative programme for the symposium includes a plenary lecture session, several group presentation sessions and roundtable discussion. Plenary lectures by world renewed scientists will be invited and all participants are welcome to submit abstracts on the three topics in advance for scrutiny by the symposium organization committee and potential selection for presentation. The updated details for the tentative programme of the symposium can be found on the following website: http://srs.ipd.org.cn/. Please submit abstracts through this website. For all logistic questions with regard to meeting participation, including invitation letters and visa issues, please contact Ms Ding Wei (dingweicdc@163.com ).

Please block the dates and submit your abstract no later than 31 March 2016. The organizing committee will provide travelling grant for young scientists from developing countries, but only those selected by the organizing committee based on their abstracts.

Looking forward to seeing you in Shanghai in June 2016.