PARTICIPATION OF “ASTRA FORUM” FOUNDATION IN THE FIRST NATIONAL CONFERENCE IN COLOPROCTOLOGY
From the 1 st to the 3 rd of September 2023 the First National Conference in coloproctology was held with international participation in the city of Sofia. The forum topic was “Diseases of rectum, anal canal and anus – multidisciplinary approaches”. The event fills in an important niche in medical science and practice and necessitates strictly disciplinary approach being the reason behind the versatile profile of forum participants. The surgeon, doctor Dragomir Dardanov, who is the event initiator in line of the “Bulgarian Society of Coloproctology” opened the forum and welcomed the guests.
“Astra Forum” Foundation took part in the last scientific session on the first day. Momchil Baev, doctor of medicine, presented in the panel sexually transmitted diseases and proctitis. He presented the topic “HPV – related anorectal diseases and prevention”, elaborated in co-authorship with Momchil Urumov, student of medicine in Medical University – Varna and Plamen Petrov, a biologist from the Faculty of Biology of Sofia University. The topic is becoming more and more popular and the presentation was attended by many students and medical specialists that demonstrated interest. Some of the considered highlights included morbidity of HPV-related diseases, the diagnostics methods that need significant elaboration in Bulgaria and of course, prophylactics. In this context, Baev reminded us that since March in Bulgaria we have the new 9-valent vaccine against HPV, suitable for boys and girls aged over 9. The most current news on the topic is that this improved vaccine for more viral strains is already offered as part of the National program for cervical cancer prophylactics, for free only for girls aged 10-14.
Doctor Baev presented the HPV coalition which was established in Bulgaria in March this year, being the first national, expert, nongovernmental coalition for effective disease prevention related to human papilloma virus in Bulgaria.
Additionally, he invited all the attendees of the forthcoming Second national conference in vaccine- preventable diseases that would be held on the 10 the – 12 th of November 2023 in Hilton hotel. The registration is already open and you could declare your participation: HERE
“Astra Forum” Foundation participated with its counter at the conference. At it the participants had the opportunity to review the initiative for better psychic health of medical specialists, as well as other pending issues related to prophylactics. The topic of psychic health proved to be quite attractive to the delegates and gathered many collaborators, with whom we managed to exchange experience and ideas. They all had the chance to see the Manual for health experts: Interpersonal communication for immunizations that we issued in November 2022.
The first national conference in coloproctology was with international participation. The discussed topics were of current and public significance. Their foundation includes the multidisciplinary approach. The program included lectures as well as discussions. The lecturers were more than 30, namely leading specialists from hospitals and institutions in Bulgaria – the university hospitals from Sofia, Pleven, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Military Medical Academy, Medical Institute of the Ministry of Interior. It is worth noting the invited foreign lecturers – Dr. Roland Scherer and Dr. Metin Mazgaldzhi from Germany, Mr. Alfredo Tonsi from Great Britain, Prof. Nicola De Angelis from France, Prof. Audrius Dulskas from Lithuania and Dr. Peter Onodi from Hungary.
On the first day of the conference, the main topic was devoted to malignant diseases of colon and anus. The second day was devoted to numerous diseases of rectum and anus that require specific diagnostics and treatment.
The conference was attended by numerous students and in the scientific program over half the lecturers were young specialists and PhD students.
