Scientific program

12.00 - 15.15 NSCMID Board meeting

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
Hosted by the City of Mariehamn
Location: Sjöpromenaden, 2 Hamngatan, Mariehamn

08.00-09.30             
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 - 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 ofStenotrophomonas 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 Non-Fermenting 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, CID) 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)

08.00-08.30
NSCMID General assembly

08.30-10.00
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 8 : Covid
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 Nordic countries / 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, CID)?

Lecture 1 (DK): 
Humoral responses to vaccination for COVID-19 in adults with and without diabetes mellitus: a Danish cohort study, Louise Bering Pedersen

Lecture 2 (FIN): 
How prevalent was pertussis in Finland 50 years ago?,  Aapo Knuutila

Lecture 3 (IS): Positive Blood Cultures at the Children's Hospital in Iceland 2006-2024,
Marianna Ingvaldsdottir

Lecture 4 (NO): Accurate and rapid turnaround of four hours for diagnosis of complicated UTIs using metagenomics, Basavaraj Bellankimath Anurag

Lecture 5 (SWE): 
Lyme carditis; 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
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)

9.00-10.30
Session 11: Recent epidemics
Chair: Paula Tähtinen (FIN, CID) 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