Last week the interim Australian CDC attended the annual Communicable Disease and Immunisation Conference (CDIC) in Brisbane. The event brought together key stakeholders from the public health ecosystem to discuss how communities can be protected and empowered through disease control and immunisation.
Helen Grinbergs, First Assistant Secretary of the CDC Establishment Taskforce, provided a keynote address at the conference. She discussed the establishment of Australia’s CDC, and its key priorities, including One Health, which will help address complex health issues through cross-sectoral collaboration.
Photo: Professor Kelly with Clare Death from Wildlife Health Australia, who presented at the conference.
Questions from the audience highlighted the enthusiasm and eagerness of Australian health professionals to collaborate towards a strong and effective standalone CDC.
In a following session, Ally Robbins-Hill and Stephanie Panchision from the interim Australian CDC Taskforce presented on the development of both the new public health surveillance system and the supporting data strategy.
Representatives from interim Australian CDC also hosted an information booth and provided advice to the conference attendees on immunisations and COVID-19, they also shared updates on the CDC establishment. When asked what they heard about most throughout the day, staff at the department’s booth told us there was “significant interest in the interim Australian CDC. Its establishment was a major talking point at the department’s booth”.
Head of the interim Australian CDC, Professor Paul Kelly, also attended the event and spoke with many of the interim Australian CDC’s key stakeholders. He described the conference as “inspiring” and was glad to hear many attendees were not only interested in the work of the Australian interim CDC, but also how they could do their part to make it as successful as possible.
Want to know more? Visit our LinkedIn page to hear from CDC team members who attended the conference.