DOHA: The fourth Annual GCC Infection Control Conference and the fourth Training Course Collateral Activities, organised by the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), is set to start in Doha on November 9. The five-day event, held under the auspices of the Supreme Council for Health (SCH), will be held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and the Medical Education Centre of HMC.

The conference will be attended by 500 international delegations and representatives from international organisations dealing with Infection Control like Gulf Center for Infection Control of King Abdul Aziz Medical City, Riyadh; Center and Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA; World Health Organization (WHO) and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

The opening conference will focus on the present H1N1 influenza scenario.

The annual conference is set to be addressed by more than 20 renowned medical experts and specialists. Continuous medical education shall also be provided through a series of symposiums, workshops and discussions to be organized from the opening day. More than 300 experts will participate in the training programme.

The conference aims at promoting therapeutic and preventive services as well as providing continuous training in the health sector. This is to realise HMC’s vision to be an internationally recognized world-class centre for healthcare excellence, in line with the directives of HH Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Emir of the State of Qatar, and to ensure the country’s high ranking, regionally and internationally, in the field of healthcare services.

“The conference will have significant impact because it will showcase the latest scientific technologies used in the field infection control,” said Dr Mamoun Al Sheikh, Assistant Executive Director of the Infection Control Programme at HMC. “HMC’s infection control programme is in line with the latest international standards and is one of the best in the region, now measuring zero. This measurement was expected by WHO to be reached by the year 2012. This shows that we are making significant progress.”