Under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance, and President of Dubai Health Authority, Hamdan Medical Award and the Dubai Health Authority supported the 9th Emirates Critical Care Conference (ECCC). The conference was held in conjunction with the 5th Asia Africa Conference of the World Federation of Societies of Intensive Care and Critical Care Medicine (WFSICCM), 9th International Pan Arab Critical Care Medicine Society (IPACCMS) and the 1st Middle East Surviving Sepsis Campaign Meeting.

 

Engineer Eissa Al Maidoor, Director General of the Dubai Health Authority and Deputy Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Hamdan Medical Award opened the 3-days conference organized by the Emirates Intensive Care Society (EICS) and the International Pan Arab Critical Care Medicine Society (EICS) at the Intercontinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City.

 

In his opening speech, Al Maidoor extended his gratitude to H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum for sponsoring the conference and for his direction under which Dubai has been able to advance the level of health services and expertise of its medical professionals.

 

Al Maidoor said: "The conference, which is being held for the ninth consecutive year, is of great significance as it coincides with the launch of the first edition of the 1st Middle East Surviving Sepsis Campaign Meeting. The statistics issued by the World Health Organization indicate that sepsis has become the leading causes of death worldwide. Every year, an estimated 20-30 million patients are afflicted, with over 6 million cases of neonatal and early childhood sepsis, with one person dying every minute because of this disease".

 

"Hence, this scientific forum gains utmost importance for the review of the latest research and global developments in the field of sepsis prevention. The conference is a platform to discuss the latest ways to improve services provided to critically ill patients", he added.

 

"The DHA has always paid great emphasis to this field because we realize the importance of management of such cases and thus the DHA has built various Intensive Care Units (ICU’s) across its hospitals, where we have trained personnel, state-of-the-art medical equipment and this has helped us reduce our mortality rates in ICUs from 60 per cent to 35 per cent, which is less than the international bench mark of 40 to 50 per cent", Al Maidoor said.

 

It is worthy to mention that the conference included 180 lectures and 12 workshops .More than 30 presidents of various critical societies all over the world participated in the conference, besides 1700 healthcare professionals from more than 30 countries including USA, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, India, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Japan, GCC countries, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan and South Africa.