Lecture: “Emerging Infectious Diseases: Why? How?” Thursdays at theUM

Thursday, May 11, 2017, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
School of Medicine (historic building), anatomy lecture hall.
Lecture presented by Professor Eric Delaporte, Director of the TransVIHMI unit (IRD-University of Montpellier) and Head of the Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases at Montpellier University Hospital.

In recent years, the news has been dominated by waves of highly publicized emerging diseases, with Ebola and Zika being the most recent examples. But without a doubt, the most devastating emerging disease to emerge in recent years is AIDS, whose HIV virus has infected 60 million people worldwide in 30 years.
The most extraordinary thing about AIDS is that this public health catastrophe was caused by a single instance of a virus jumping from chimpanzees to humans.
How can such an infection emerge in humans, and how can it spread to epidemic proportions? Only multidisciplinary research—in which researchers from the IRD and the University of Montpellier actively participated—has been able to answer these questions.
In the case of AIDS, it took nearly 20 years to unravel the mystery surrounding the origin of this epidemic.
Where? When? How? Why? Based on this exploration of its origins, lessons for the future will be discussed.
Watch the video “AIDS: On the African Trail”

"UM's Thursdays"

The University of Montpellier, with its nine faculties, two schools, and six institutes, is home to a wealth of faculty members andProfessors in a wide variety of fields of study. The university has chosen to highlight them by offering a unique lecture series: “Jeudis de l’UM .”
Variety of topics/Variety of venues: these events are designed as a journey through the various departments of the “UM,” so that everyone can discover and discuss academic topics presented in a way that is accessible to all.