Melissa Leach will be speaking at the Royal Society of Medicine event entitled Ebola: the 21st Century Plague?  Shocking the world, the Ebola virus has claimed more than 8,400 lives during the current epidemic in West Africa, and has demanded a global response to contain and prevent the disease.  The event will be an assembly of global leaders in science, health and public policy. The day will also discuss the crucial lessons learnt from 2014 and map out the strategies that are in place for preventing future outbreaks.

Other speakers include Professor Peter Piot, who co-discovered the Ebola virus in Zaire in 1976, presenting on the biology and origins of the disease. Professor Piot’s colleague at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Dr David Heymann, will be focusing on the epidemiology of the current and previous outbreaks, and Dr Paul Cosford, Director for Health Protection and Medical Director at Public Health England will discuss the public health issues in further detail. There will also be an opportunity to hear from medical consultant Dr Roger Alcock, who has recently returned from Africa where he worked as an Ebola volunteer, on his first-hand experience of the humanitarian response to the outbreak.

More details available here: https://www.rsm.ac.uk/events/EPF02