NSCMID 2025 Meeting Scientific Programme

 

Pre-course 27.8.2025

16.00 - 19.00 and 28.8: 08.30 - 12.00 - lunch - 13.00 - 14.00

 

Thursday 28.8.2025

14.30-16.00 Registration open (coffee)

16.00-16.10 Opening words

 

16.10-17.00 Session 1: Climate change – a medical and infectious disease threat also in the Nordics

Chair: Asko Järvinen (FIN, ID) and Annika Ljung (SWE, CM)

Lecture 1: Climate change / Petteri Taalas (FIN) 

Lecture 2: Climate change and Infectious Diseases / Jan C. Semenza (SWE) 

17.00-17.30 Exhibition with coffee

 

17.30-18.30 Session 2: Emerging environmental health risks

Chair: Harri Marttila (FIN, ID) and Hans Linde Nielsen (DEN, CM)

Lecture 1: Overview of epidemiology and current trends of Legionnaires’ disease in the Nordics / Silja Mentula (FIN)

Lecture 2: Cryptosporidiosis / Kurt Hanevik (NO)

 

19.00-21.00 Welcome reception at the tallship Pommern 

Location: Sjöpromenaden, 2 Hamngatan, Mariehamn 

This activity is not sponsored by our industrial representativies.

 

Friday 29.8.2025

8.00-9.30 Session 3: Antibiotics – choice, administration and dosing

Chair: Harri Marttila (FIN, ID) and Mette Damkjær Bartels (DEN, CM)

Lecture 1: Therapeutic drug monitoring in critically ill patients / Anna-Karin Smekal (SWE)

Lecture 2: Continuous antibiotic therapy in the outpatient setting – practical considerations / Niklas Broman (FIN)

Lecture 3: Antibiotic stewardship for children: Lessons learned reactions / Valtýr Stefánsson Thors (IS) 

 

9.30-10.00 Exhibition with coffee

 

10.00-11.00 GOLD SPONSOR SYMPOSIUM – Shionogi

Beyond the WHO priority pathogens: Is there a role for cefiderocol for treatment of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia?
Chair: Prof. Christian Giske (SWE) and Mette Damkjær Bartels, MD, PhD, Amager og Hvidovre Hospital (DEN)

Lecture 1: Overview of Rare Non-Fermenting Pathogens and Their Clinical Impact / Prof. Kristian Schønning , Copenhagen 
University Hospital, Rigshospitalet (DEN)

Lecture 2: The Role of Cefiderocol in the Treatment of NonFermenting Pathogens / Prof. Christian Giske, Karolinska 
University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet (SWE)

Lecture 3: Clinical Case Discussion / Dr. Mireille van Westreenen, Erasmus Medical Center, The Netherlands

 

11.00-11.45 Session 4: Tick borne diseases

Chair: Marika Nordberg (FIN, ID) and Valtýr Stefánsson Thors (IS, PID)

Lecture 1: Tick-borne diseases in the Nordics –epidemiology / Jukka Hytönen (FIN) 

Lecture 2: Clinical picture and diagnostics of emerging tick-borne diseases in the Nordics / Johanna Sjöwall (SWE) 

 

11.45-12.45 Exhibition with lunch

 

12.45-14.00 Poster session

 

14.00-14.30 SILVER SPONSOR SYMPOSIUM – CSL Seqirus
Are Standard Vaccines Enough? Rethinking Influenza Protection in Older Adults
Chair: Prof. Ole Schmeltz Sogaard, Aarhus University Hospital (DEN)
Lecture: Professor Tino F. Schwarz, Head of the Institute of Laboratory Medicine and Vaccination Centre at the Klinikum 
Wuerzburg Mitte, Campus Juliusspital, Academic Teaching 
Hospital of the University of Wuerzburg, Germany

14.30- 15.30 Session 5: Complications of hematogenously spreading infections
Chair: Paula Tähtinen (FIN, PID) and Truls Michael Leegaard (NOR, CM)

Lecture 1: Treatment of Children’s bone infections, when do we need intravenous antibiotics? / Allan Nielsen (DEN) 
Lecture 2: Hematogenous seeding of oral microbiota – pleural empyema and brain abscesses as manifestations of the 
same entity / Øyvind Kommedal (NO)

15.30-16.00 Exhibition with coffee

16.00-17.00 Session 6: AMR surveillance
Chair: Marjaana Pitkäpaasi (FIN, ID) and Antti Hakanen (FIN, CM)

Lecture 1: Is it time for AMR surveillance 2.0? / Gunnar Skov Simonsen (NO)                                                                                    Comments: Reetta Huttunen (FIN) and Anders Johansson  (SWE) 
Panel discussion / Gunnar Skov Simonsen (NO), Reetta Huttunen (FIN) and Anders Johansson (SWE) 

17.00-17.45 Honorary lecture
Chair: Antti Hakanen (FIN, CM)
Jaana Vuopio (FIN)

 

Saturday 30.8.2025

8.00-8.30 NSCMID General assembly

8.30-10.00 Session 7: Diagnostic stewardship in the battle of AMR  in collaboration with NordicAST
Chair: Antti Hakanen (FIN, CM) and Lena Rós Ásmundsdóttir (IS, CM)

Lecture 1: How can the microbiological laboratories play a key role in the work against AMR / Anna-Karin Smekal (SWE) Lecture 2: (When do we need) rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing in Nordics? / Oskar Ekelund (SWE)                          Lecture 3: How does reporting practices of wound swap cultures effect antibiotic use in the clinic. Different practices in the Nordics / Anu Pätäri-Sampo (FIN)

10.00-10.30 Exhibition with coffee

10.30-11.30 GOLD SPONSOR SYMPOSIUM – Pfizer
The burden of RSV in infants and overview of the current situation
Chair: Harri Marttila, MD, PhD, Turku University Hospital (FIN) and Valtýr Stefánsson Thors, MD, PhD, Landspitali University Hospital (IS)

Lecture: Current status of RSV in infants / Terho Heikkinen, Professor of Pediatrics, University of Turku (FIN)
A panel discussion: Pediatric RSV insights across the Nordic countries
Thea Kølsen Fischer, Research director, Professor, Nordsjællands Hospital (DEN)
Samuel Rhedin, MD, Associate professor, Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden and Sachs’ Children and Youth Hospital Stockholm (SWE)
Terho Heikkinen, Professor of Pediatrics, University of Turku (FIN)

11.30-12.00 Session: Covid-19
Chair: Asko Järvinen (FIN, ID)

Lecture: Origin of SARS-CoV-2 / Thea Kølsen Fischer (DEN)

12.00-13.00 Exhibition with lunch

13.00-13.30 SILVER SPONSOR SYMPOSIUM – AstraZeneca
Prioritising Childhood Influenza Immunization
Chair: Lena Rós Ásmundsdóttir, MD, PhD and Valtýr Stefánsson Thors, MD, PhD, both Landspitali University Hospital (IS)

Lecture 1: Influenza vaccination of children in the Nordics Terho Heikkinen, Professor of Pediatrics, University of Turku (FIN) Lecture 2: Offering Influenza Vaccination to all children – The UK experience / Dr. George Kassianos, GP, National Immunisation Lead for the Royal College of GPs, and  President of the British Global & Travel Health Association (UK)

13.30- 14.45 Session 9: Invited early career scientists 15 min x 5
Chair: Jukka Hytönen (FIN, CM) and Valtýr Stefánsson Thors (IS, PID) 

Denmark: Humoral responses to vaccination for COVID-19 in adults with and without diabetes mellitus: a Danish cohort study / Louise Bering Pedersen
Finland: How prevalent was pertussis in Finland 50 years ago? / Aapo Knuutila
Iceland: Positive Blood Cultures at the Children's Hospital in Iceland 2006-2024 / Marianna Ingvaldsdottir
Norway: Accurate and rapid turnaround of four hours for diagnosis of complicated UTIs using metagenomics / Anurag Basavaraj Bellankimath 
Sweden: Incidence and the need for pacemaker after treatment – a registry-based study / Sanna Avellan

14.45-15.15 Exhibition and coffee

15.15-16.45 Session 10: Preparedness for High Consequence Infectious Diseases - in collaboration with the NSCMID Working Group on High level Isolation in collaboration with NSCMID High level isolation group
Chair: Olli-Pekka Lehtonen (FIN, CM) and Ole Schmeltz Søgaard (DEN, ID)

Lecture 1: High Consequence Infectious Diseases - What are they? / Jake Dunning (UK)
Lecture 2: Management of High Consequence Infectious Diseases in the Nordics / Arne Broch Brantsæter (NO) and David Ekqvist (SWE)

20.00- Congress dinner at Smakbyn

 

Sunday 31.8.2025

9.00-10.30 Session 11: Recent epidemics 
Chair: Paula Tähtinen (FIN, PID) and Ingrid Hoff (NOR, ID)

Lecture 1: Severe adenovirus 7 infection outbreak in the Finnish military / Marjaana Pitkäpaasi (FIN)
Lecture 2: Parvovirus B19 epidemic in pregnant women / Maria Wessman (DEN)
Lecture 3: Bordetella Pertussis / Qiushui He (FIN)

10.30-11.00 Exhibition with coffee

 

11.00-13.00 Session 12: HOT TOPICS                                                                                                                                                Chair: Asko Järvinen (FIN, ID) and Magnus Rasmussen (SWE, ID)

Lecture 1: Long-covid / Judith Bruchfeld (SWE)
Lecture 2: Is flucloxacillin out – toxic and less effective? / Thomas Benfield (DEN)
Lecture 3: Viral health threats / Heli Harvala (FIN)
Lecture 4: What is hot in FMT and gut microbiota / Eveliina Munukka (FIN)

13.00-13.10 Closing remarks and welcome to NSCMID 2026 / Antti Hakanen and Mette Damkjær Bartels

13.10 TAKE AWAY LUNCH