NSCMID chairman´s report 2023/2024

Annual meeting 2023

The 39th NSCMID meeting was held 21-24 September in Örebro, Sweden. The scientific program included sessions on a wide variety of subjects in the field of infectious diseases, paediatric infections, infection control and clinical microbiology.  Topics included combination antibiotic treatment and use of antibiotics in infections caused by MDR Enterobacterales and Pseudomonas, fecal microbiota transplantation, STI, implant associated infections, hepatitis C elimination, metagenomics and tick borne encephalitis. Honorary lecture was given by professor Magnus Gisslen on Covid-19 and HIV/AIDS: Assessing their roles in the spectrum of pandemics.

The meeting was an on-site meeting with >250 registered delegates and many of the presenters participated in the full congress and contributed to the scientific discussions. More than 45 abstracts were submitted and presented at the meeting. On the 20-21 September a Pre-course “Omics approaches for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases” was arranged in collaboration with Örebro University. The course was really appreciated and gathered about 25 PhD-students and 25 other participants. In addition to all the Scientific events the meeting also provided several Social activities like welcome reception on Örebro Castle, Early morning Run, City walk and Congress dinner.  The meeting was also economically successful and brought a surplus of 50,252 SEK.

2023 NSCMID Annual General Meeting

Was held in Örebro, Sweden in23 September 2023. The board continued with the same members that had been elected previously except Bjørn Blomberg who was replaced by Ingrid Hoff from Bergen, Norway elected by the members.  Bjørn Blomberg had served also as a honorary treasurer and he also gave the treasurer’s report. The equity of the society had increased thanks to surplus from Alborg meeting. In total 320 active members were registered at the time of AGM with 24 new members since the last AGM in 2022. 

NSCMID board meeting 

The NSCMID board met in Örebro 21 September 2023 and 12 March 2024 in Stockholm and focused on planning the coming Annual Meetings. Some matters were decided by e-mail meetings in between the physical board meetings. The technical update of website was decided on and it took place in March 2204 without any technical problems. A letter was sent to members of national societies promoting the Annual meetings, with information on membership, the NSCMID Exchange Programme and how to apply for research grants from the SSAC Foundation. Nina Breinholt Staerke was replaced by Erik Forsblom as a webmaster.

SSAC Foundation meeting in Stockholm

The SSAC Foundation is a legal entity under the auspices of Svenska Läkaresällskapet where NSCMID members only can apply for grants supporting research and scientific meetings. The SSAC Foundation board had a meeting for grant decisions in Stockholm on 11th March 2024. The foundation received 21 applications, of which two were submitted by non-members and therefore 19 were reviewed and scored by the board. Decision was made to grant 7 applications with a total amount of 1 039 495 SEK. A decision was made not to give money for travel grants by the SSAC Foundation, as the current financial situation of NSCMID is in balance. 

Treasurer’s summary of the financial situation

Following the decline in NSCMID’s equity in the period from 2018/19 up to the pandemic years of 2020/21, the last three years, however, the organization has had a healthy economic recovery with sizeable profits of 1.2 million in 2021/22 and 0.8 million in the last financial year of 2022/23. The recovery is mainly driven by surplus from the conferences in Turku in 2021 (0.95 mill) and Aalborg in 2022 (0.97 mill). Currently, the organization’s equity stands at 3.5 million DKK, the highest in a decade. This means that the organization is well situated to abide by its commitment to cover all costs in the unlikely event of a failed conference. 

NSCMID Working groups

The Steering Committee of the Working Group for High-Level Isolation Units met during the NSCMID meeting in Örebro on 22 September 2023.Working group members have also used e-mail and WhatsApp to exchange advice and experiences relevant to high consequence infectious diseases, mpox, MERS, and Covid-19. The chair is Arne Broch Brantsæter.

The NordicAST had two physical and two online meetings in 2023/4. The annual 2-day workshop was held in May 2024 in Malmö with about 180 participants, covering topics as automated reading of inhibition zones, clinical and AST aspects of non-tuberculosis mycobacteria, anaerobic AST and many other practical challenges in AST. New in this year's workshop, young scientists and laboratory technicians had the opportunity to submit abstracts to present their work in mini oral presentations and attend the workshop at a reduced fee. Two webinars were held during the year, the NordicAST webinar on basic AST in November 2023 and “ What is new in the breakpoint table v14.0?” in January 2024. NordicAST was chaired by Barbara Holzknecht with the scientific secretary Kaisu Rantakokko-Jalava and the treasurer Dennis Back Holmgaard.

Nordic Paediatric Infectious Diseases Group, NORPID did not have any physical face-to-face meetings in 2023/2024. The group published its first major Nordic collaborative study on group B streptococcal infections in Eurosurveillance. The groups organized a symposium in the Annual Meeting in Örebro on Respiratory infections in children – complications and progress.  The chair is Terho Heikkinen. 

Nordic tick borne disease group members have been actively participating in the EU Interreg project NorthTick and has published 2 papers on Tick-born infections in the North Sea Region. The group has been involved in organizing the NordTick Conference in Nyborg, Denmark 16-18 April 2024.

Annual meeting 2024 

This year´s annual meeting in Oslo, Norway 29 August – 1 September 2024 is chaired by Truls Leegaard. 

My period as Chairman will end after AGM 2024. I would like to thank my colleagues in the Board for enthusiastic and innovative work. I would also like to thank all the colleagues who have been active in the Annual Meetings and Working Groups. I hope we all could find how much in common we have in the Nordic countries and enjoy the Nordic collaboration for the prosperous science and improvement in clinical activities.   

I hope we could all find NSCMID as a common field for friendship, shared experiences and collaboration.

Professor Asko Järvinen, NSCMID chairman
23 August 2024