ICAAC-IDSA -- Alone Again (Naturally)

November 28th, 2009

ICAAC-IDSA — Alone Again (Naturally)

Just received my latest copy of Infectious Disease News, that large glossy review magazine* that arrives approximately monthly in my mailbox.

As usual, I turned right to Dr. Theodore C. Eickhoff’s always-thoughtful editorial, this month entitled “Reflections on the 47th IDSA Meeting.” He writes:

It was a much more “user-friendly” number of attendees, in contrast to the almost 15,000 people that attended the joint meeting last year. I heard absolutely no one express a desire to have another joint IDSA-ICAAC meeting.

I can see his point — the combined meeting in Washington last year drew over 15,000 participants, and at times was just too gargantuan to manage.

But if I could for a moment be the lone voice arguing for a joint meeting, here’s my pitch: Last year, tons of people in ID went to ICAAC-IDSA, even people who rarely go to either meeting. This year, not so much — which might explain the “somewhat muted and subdued” tone Eickhoff found at IDSA this year in Philadelphia.

Either that or what the Yankees were doing against the Phillies.

(*Don’t call it a “throwaway!”)

HIV and ID Observations

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November 28th, 2009