Italian Clinical Microbiologists Congress kicks off on Saturday in Rimini

“The experience of Covid leaves us important lessons from which we need to start again to organize a healthcare system that can no longer be found unprepared in the face of pandemic threats, to deal with which, the most effective solution passes through a strong microbiological diagnostic activity territorial, the definition of a national pandemic plan and the close collaboration between the various actors involved. In a new context, cynical microbiologists are ready to do their part, making their experience and knowledge available to the country. ” premises that the 49th National Congress of the Italian Clinical Microbiologists Association (Amcli) opens in Rimini, Saturday 26 February, at the Congress Center, the first after two years of blockage due to the pandemic. presence, more than a thousand professionals are expected to meet in seminars and symposia, of which only two are specifically dedicated to Covid. Sunday will be held on the role of Clinical Microbiology in the two years of the pandemic, with a focus on the reorganization of structures and the enormous effort conducted for the diagnosis, genomic typing of the virus and its variants. On Tuesday 1 March, in the light of what emerged during the congress, a final update seminar on Covid will be held. “The Rimini event wants to ideally re-establish what happened in these two years in which, as never before, the health community has found itself facing such an aggressive pandemic, with the full-blown problems of Microbiology”, comments Pierangelo Clerici, president Amcli and director of Uo Microbiologia Asst Ovest Milanese. “I am thinking of maternal and fetal infections, the treatment of immunocompromised and frail patients, infections in transplant patients, respiratory infections and the serious threat of infections sustained by resistant antibiotic microorganisms. All problems that have been painstakingly managed in these two years. that, in a context of return to normality, must return to the center of the activities of Clinical Microbiology “. The reorganization of the system will also be discussed in the light of the Pnrr funds. The congress event in Rimini celebrates 50 years of the Amcli, in reality celebration was supposed to take place in 2020 but for obvious reasons it was postponed, and coincides with the renewal of the executive offices which will be followed by the appointment of the executive next March. “I hope that from this congress, one of the first to take place again in presence, an awareness of the role that microbiologists have played in tackling the pandemic, operating in urgency like many and facing a structural shortage of staff (in many cases less than 30% of the staff) thanks to the sacrifice and commitment of all. Only in this way were we able to transform the swab analysis and report service into 24 hours a day ”, Clerici continues. An opportunity not to be missed, with a view to a design that aims at the self-sufficiency of devices and a territorial organizational structure designed and ready to be activated promptly. In this regard, science highlights how the temporal space in which dangerous pathogens make the leap of species has been reduced and potentially serious threats to world health. “We will dedicate a specific meeting to this topic, with a focus on the possibility of identifying early possible upcoming pandemic virus threats ”, concludes Clerici.