COVID-19 and Multimorbidity: How to Deal with Multiple Infectious Diseases in Parallel?

What happens when COVID-19 meets other infectious diseases such as HIV, Tuberculosis, and Malaria? This is a central question right now for many people living in areas with high rates of infectious diseases, particularly in middle- and low-income countries. However, the risk of facing multiple infectious diseases also affects people in high-income countries. The current COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how fast infectious diseases can spread around the world. Therefore, the awareness that people can suffer from multiple infectious diseases at the same time and the treatment of these diseases is of global importance.

Multimorbidity, the coexistence of two or more health conditions, is a growing public health challenge. It results in complex disease patterns that may have multiplicative consequences on health outcomes. This subject raises various questions related to the COVID-19 pandemic: What happens to the human body when it is affected by several infectious diseases? How can multimorbidity be considered in the development and application of drugs and vaccines? How can scientists advise politics and society on coping with the issue of COVID-19 and multimorbidity, and what can we learn from experiences made during the COVID-19 crisis?

These and other questions will be discussed during a virtual panel, organized by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences (EAS), the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Senegal Academy of Science and Technology (ANSTS), and the UK Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS). The renowned speakers have broad expertise in infectious diseases research and they will analyse the topic scientifically and from their country perspective.
ASSAf, ANSTS, EAS, UK-AMS, and Leopoldina welcome the following specialists:

• Professor Wondwossen Amogne, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
• Professor Peter Calverley, Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, University of Liverpool, UK
• Professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim, Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), Doris Duke Medical Research Institute, Durban, South Africa
• Professor Stefan H. E. Kaufmann ML, Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany
• Professor Papa Salif Sow, Member of the Senegal Academy of Science and Technology, Dakar, Senegal

The virtual live event will be moderated by Vivian Upmann, Germany.

The virtual panel discussion is part of the Leopoldina’s International Virtual Panel Series. The five academies originally planned an in-person workshop on infectious diseases in spring 2020 in Berlin, which has to be forwarded to a later date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The panel bridges the gap with a virtual scientific dialogue on an urgent topic. The audience is very welcome to ask questions to the speakers during the event.

With this event, the Leopoldina continues its new virtual format for global scientific exchange: Leopoldina International – a series of virtual panels organized by Leopoldina’s International Relations Department in cooperation with its global partners. At regular intervals, leading international experts present latest scientific findings. Leopoldina International offers a virtual room for the global scientific community to convene and for the public to engage in a dialogue with leading scientists.

ML - Member of the Leopoldina