For the few members who may be interested, this was a truly international meeting covering a wide range of topics, with around 100 delegates from many countries taking part.

Highlights :-


* The UK Royal College of Pathologists helps training, setting standards and examinations in a range of centres in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Facilities and personnel which we take for granted in the UK may be minimal or non-existent in other countries.

Examples:- fevered patients may be treated for malaria without confirming the diagnosis, so other causes of fever may not be treated until it’s too late ; breast cancers may not be treated properly because tests to identify their types are simply not done ; rapid, cheap testing for a range of illnesses from TB to cervical cancer may also not be done.


* Terrorism is a worldwide challenge. " Plan Orsan " addresses incidents in France with a large number of casualties ; a week ago over 80 people needed emergency treatment and emergency response teams were quickly at the scenes. Health professionals are needed wherever such incidents and fighting occurs ; transfusion medicine is one of the essential pathology specialties in these circumstances.


* Antibiotic resistance is another worldwide challenge. Up to half of all antimicrobial drugs may be unnecessary ; " over-the-counter " sales without prescription are a problem ; use in animals contributes to resistance ; vaccines are only part of the solution ; TB ( with or without HIV/AIDS ) is a major global contributor to ill health and multidrug resistance an increasing worry.


* The challenge of preventing future pandemics is a third worldwide problem. Ebola virus disease in West Africa was simply the latest - cheap rapid testing and development of treatments and vaccines are all the concern of pathology specialties.


* Climate change and extreme weather events are a fourth worldwide problem - typhoons in the Philippines required skilled health professionals including those in pathology specialties with experience of preventing / treating likely illnesses.


* Telepathology - where countries lack pathologists, " remote " diagnosis of cancers and other conditions is developing, as it becomes easier to transmit large amounts of data from microscope slides through the internet. The samples still need to be processed locally, then scanned for transmission to pathologists. These include blood disease specialists / haematologists for , say, leukaemia ; and other disease specialists / histopathologists for , say, cancers ).


* The specialty of microbiology is involved in diagnosis of infections, and identifying new ( or under-diagnosed ) conditions.

Example :- viral hepatitis E is an illness of the liver which can infect both animals and humans. It’s now the commonest type of hepatitis - although most people fully recover, it's a threat for those with poor immunity ( HIV/AIDS, transplants ) and pregnant individuals. So far there’s no licensed vaccine. Most UK pigs are infected - another reason meat / meat products need to be thoroughly cooked.



* How does an International Pathology Day benefit UK citizens / patients ?

Nobody wants epidemics and we need to reduce risk of pandemics such as HIV/AIDS and influenza. The most likely future risks are from animal diseases spread to humans - we need to be prepared but can't predict the next pandemic with certainty.


If they had insight into standards of healthcare in many other countries, including the Philippines, they might appreciate the NHS, despite its many problems ( the only one concerning and understood by the Government being financial ).

Pathology is involved in 70% of all diagnoses, and needed ( but sadly lacking ) worldwide for treatments to be effective.