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Respectfully Requesting Letters of Support for a
ProMED Rescue Initiative
https://tinyurl.com/3p52c36c
Target Audience — Global Organizations / Distinguished Leaders / Allied Healthcare Leaders/Environmental and other leading scientists / Universities and One Health Community leaders and individuals / organizations with strong interest in sustaining the ProMED operations.
The Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED) was launched in 1994 as an Internet-based service to identify unusual health events related to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and toxins affecting humans, animals, plants and all-natural life in the world. It has been a program activity of the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID) since 1999. ProMED is the largest and most dependable publicly available system conducting global reporting of health-related disease outbreaks. Reports are produced and commentary provided by a multidisciplinary global team of subject matter expert (SME) Moderators in a variety of fields including microbiology, parasitology, pathology, epidemiology, entomology, veterinary, environmental health, toxicology, insect/plant diseases and beyond. Historically, ProMED is in operation 24 hours a day, 7days a week to ensure timely reporting in every time zone. Tragically, the ProMED program now finds itself in grave financial troubles.
Over the last 28 years, thanks to the commitment of ProMED team members and moderators actively mining and monitoring disease data sets gathered from across the globe, ProMED has been the first to report on numerous major-to-minor, common and rare disease outbreaks and biothreats including SARS, Chikungunya, the early spread of Ebola and Zika, MERS, and COVID-19. These reports were not simple statements of facts, rather they included high quality comments by the ProMED moderators that presented the information from a professional public health perspective. This unique program represents a critical and proven scientific modality for protecting against health threats worldwide.
Modern technologies such as artificial intelligence present unparalleled, exciting opportunities, but cannot replace expert human oversight of complex surveillance systems for early identification of infectious disease threats. The undersigned strongly encourage the ISID to seek a new home for ProMED that would ensure the financial wellness to sustain and grow this indispensable program. To be sure, ProMED has contributed significantly to the maintenance of optimal health for the world, which falls under the umbrella of the One Health concept/approach.
We, the undersigned (see back page of pdf to sign), urge governmental leaders, health industries, institutions of higher learning, and all global public health authorities to proactively seek a long-term solution for ProMED funding that will allow moderators and staff to continue their operations free from political, social and other external restrictive burdens. The world must find funding support to sustain this profound, unparalleled, and dynamic program in the name of public health in the spirit of One Health.
After downloading and signing the pdf of the Letter (https://tinyurl.com/3p52c36c) please return it to Dr. Craig Carter (craig.carter@uky.edu) for processing. If you are unable to download and sign the pdf, please email the requested information to Dr. Carter for inclusion.
1. Name of the supporting organization or individual
2. Date signed
3. Primary contact name and full contact information-
Name
Title
Email
Phone
Address
Comments by signee:
Thank You for your participation.
Executive Director– John Poppe, DVM, MPH
BG (Dr.) John Poppe, Executive Director & Board Member
Address: 206 Springwood Lane, TX 78216
Phone: +1-210-749-0714
Email: exec.dir@avohsociety.org
President – Karen Becker, DVM, MPH
Email: kmbecker6260@gmail.com
Vice President – Vacant,
Hartz Liaison- Keith Goldman
Immediate Past President– Jack Shere, DVM, PhD
Board of Directors- Craig Carter, DVM, PhD (Chairperson), Ron DeHaven, DVM, MBA, Bernadette Dunham, DVM, PhD, Bruce Kaplan, DVM, Laura Kahn, MD, MPH, Lonnie King, DVM, MS, MPP, William Stokes, DVM
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