Tehran University of Medical Sciences
Office of Vice-Chancellor for Global Strategies & International Affairs
International Human Capacity Development (IHCD)
Code : 9345-331695      Publish Date : Monday, October 21, 2013 Visit : 2310

Intl. Congress form | International Congress Report | International Congress Report For Faculty | 5th International Conference on HealthGIS 2013

5th International Conference on HealthGIS 2013
The Report of 5th International Conference on HealthGIS 2013 by Dr.Ahmad Ali Hanafi-Bojd
Application Code :
306-0213-0012
 
Created Date : Monday, August 26, 2013Update Date : Monday, October 07, 2013IP Address :194.225.57.25
Submit Date : Monday, October 07, 2013Email : aahanafibojd@tums.ac.ir
Personal Information
Name : Ahmad Ali
Surname : Hanafi-Bojd
School/Research center : Public Health
Possition : Assistant professor
Tel : +98-21-42933167
E-mail : aahanafibojd@tums.ac.ir
Information of Congress
Title of the Congress : 5th International Conference on HealthGIS 2013
Title of your Abstract : IrSandflybase: The first database for vectors of leishmaniasis in Iran
Venue : Bangkok/Thailand
From : Wednesday, August 21, 2013
To : Friday, August 23, 2013
Abstract(Please copy/paste the abstract send to the congress) : Of approximately 900 sand fly species in the world, about 70 have been concerned as vectors of leishmaniasis. This important neglected disease has wide distribution in the world including Iran. Study on sand flies has begun in the North and West of Iran in 1930 and continues up to now. It is found two genera are active in the country: Phlebotomus and Sergentomyia. Concerning many published information in the field of sand flies, providing a digital database for the country will help the public health authorities to make more correct and prompt decisions for planning the disease control programs. Also modeling and forecasting of transmission potential across the country will be applicable using the up to date database. Therefore we start to establish a database for Phlebotominae sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) of Iran, vectors of leishmaniasis, as an important neglected disease in the country. 
Data collection was made to gather all published documents, papers, thesis and abstracts on phlebotomine sand flies of Iran till 2012. Search engines including google scholar, Pubmed, Elsevier, IranMedex, SID, Scopus were used. Also detailed information of MSc/PhD thesis were collected from the academic libraries. A database was designed in exel format, including all information regarding sand flies fauna, monthly activity, natural infection, susceptibility to insecticides, etc at all available administrative boundaries. The data was then transferred to ArcGIS9.3 to prepare the first spatial database of sand flies of Iran. ArcMap was employed to draw the needed maps.
The IrSandflybase includes 130 papers and 61 MSc/PhD thesis, reporting studies conducted during 1930-2012. These database has 110048 excel cells including different available data covering all available aspects of ecology and biology of Iranian sand flies. There are 50 species in two genera of Phlebotomus and Sergentomyia in the country. Each genus has 6 subgenera in Iran. Their temporal activity is all year in warm regions of the southern part, while it may reduce to 7-8 months in central plateau or 4-5 months in cold areas of northwest. 
We found some studies reported rare species from the borderlines of Iran. It seems that similarity of climate in these areas with the neighbor countries, where those species are reported, may be a reason for their occasionally collection. Also, changing the climate due to global warming may affect the spatial distribution of different species and extend it inside the country, the issue that can be followed by an update database.
Keywords of your Abstract : Sandfly, Leishmaniasis, Database, Iran
Acceptance Letter : http://gsia.tums.ac.ir/images/UserFiles/10044/Forms/306/Acceptance_letter_ID-10.pdf
The presentation : Oral
The Cover of Abstract book :
Published abstract in the abstract book with the related code :
Where has your abstract been indexed? : none
If you choose other, please name :  
The Congress Reporting Form
How many volunteers were present at the Congress? : more than 200
Delegates from which countries presented in the congress? : Thailand, India, Iran, Germany, USA, Oman, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa, Nigeria, Japan, UK, Vietnam, Nepal, Sri Lanka, French, Bangladesh
Were the delegates of any other organizations present in the congress? : Yes
If yes, please write the names of the organizations in the box : ESRI, AIT, Bangkok University
What were the responses to your talking points? Were specific questions or concerns raised? : There was question about the availability of the database for Health system. Also some body asked about the validity of sand fly identification, because i collected the data from different sources. I answered that i will use the most reliable information for modeling of sand flies distribution.
If you met staff members, please list their full names & positions. : I found interestingly, Prof. Majid Fathi, Institute and Center Director, University of Siegen, Germany. There was good experience to start new connection with him for future joint projects. Also Dr Steeve Ebener Who is working with WHO was another researcher in GIS that i met. Dr Nitiporn Kumar, the conference manager, as my old friend and the dean of Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) did his best during the conference.
Please inform us if there are any follow up actions we need to talk with the members of the congress : I think we can make some connection to key persons in the field of Health GIS and invite them to Tehran University of Medical Sciences. During their visits we can use their experiences in the field of GIS and Health. I found some scientists in this regard and can invite them if TUMS support their costs. Also as you know the current university payments for the conferences don’t cover the costs of the conference, even for ticket! So I suggest to increase the payment amount and provide the opportunity for us to participate the conferences in Europe.
Your experiences about the travel processes(Providing ticket, accommodation,...) : I did the travel processes via Takht-e-Soleiman travel agency. There was no problem.
Please give a briefing of your own observations and outcomes of the congress: : Heath GIS is an international conference that is held every two years in Asia. I jointed to it from the 3rd conference in India. This is a good opportunity to meet the experts on GIS application in Health, and bring together people who are interested in this field. During this conferences (2009, 2011, 2013) i have found different researchers in this field and it opened a new window for me. The Health GIS is a new branch of science in Iran and I will try to teach my lesson from it to my colleagues and students on our university. 
During 5th Health GIS more than 80 papers were accepted as oral presentation and there were about 15 poster presentations. Before the conference and during the first day, there were four workshops. During the presentations I found some interesting research fields that we can do in Iran to provide more health facilities for Iranian community.