19th WORLD CONGRESS ON DISASTER AND EMERGENCY MEDICINE

2015 is an important year for WCDEM, as it will be the first time that this key conference is held in Africa. Disasters can strike anywhere, but often cause the greatest devastation when they hit communities that are not prepared to handle the resulting devastation. With this in mind, the theme for the 2015 conference will be Creating Capacity, Building Resilience. We will focus on utilizing prevention and preparedness to minimize the impact of disasters and hasten recovery by developing more disaster resilient communities. Emergency Medicine is rapidly developing in Africa. It was first recognized as a separate specialty in South Africa in 2003, and in 2010 the FIFA World Cup™ brought a new emphasis and focus on training in the field of disaster and mass gathering medicine. Five years later, the skills and systems developed for the World Cup remain, and are allowing an accelerated appreciation and expansion of disaster services and planning in the country.Many other sub-Saharan countries are now following suit and developing their emergency and disaster care response systems, in line with the World Health Assembly’s call for better disaster preparedness. As South Africa’s professional society, EMSSA is spearheading the development of this evolving specialty around the country and throughout the rest of the continent. We aim to improve the quality of emergency care and disaster management in areas where it is needed most by building capacity through training and outreach. To read more about the conference please click here to download the PDF