Conference Theme
In 2026 the Conference theme will be “Public Health at Risk – Collective Solutions to New Challenges”.
Public health in Australia and globally is at the crossroads.
This will be the first of our conferences that takes place following the establishment of the Australian Centre for Disease Control. But it arrives in an environment where global leadership in communicable disease control and immunisation appears to be in retreat. We have increasingly more sophisticated prevention and response options, but we face the challenges of falling immunisation coverage, growing climate crises and declines in societal trust in institutions following the pandemic. In the next few years artificial intelligence may change every aspect of the way we do our day-to-day work, but how should we best respond to take advantage of the available benefits, whilst managing the existing and emerging risks?
In this challenging time we are asking you to bring to this conference your ideas to drive improvement in communicable disease control and prevention. The conference will provide the opportunity to learn about the changes happening nationally and internationally, and to share your local solutions and successes. What can we learn from you to better manage our most pressing challenges? Join us in Melbourne to be part of the conversation as we work together to improve disease control in Australia.
Conference objectives The objectives of the conference are to:
Create a dynamic environment to foster knowledge sharing, collaboration and relationship building among health professionals working on communicable disease control, immunisation, and related areas
Highlight the activities of relevant research programs on infectious and vaccine preventable diseases to encourage engagement in high quality research initiatives to improve health outcomes for Australians
Provide collective guidance and insight into capacity building and strengthening communicable disease control and immunisation programs
Provide conference delegates with new and innovative ideas that can be applied to local settings and systems to help create and improve public health systems for local communities