“CKDu Conference” on December 8-9

First international conference on “Chronic Kidney Disease of unknown etiology (CKDu): Current Aspects and Future Prospects” organized by Faculty of Science, University of Peradeniya will be held on 8- 9th of December 2018 at Postgraduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya.The conference will address the geo-environmental, sociological and medical aspects of CKDu.

The ceremonial inauguration will be graced by His Excellency Ambassador of Federal Republic of Germany as the Chief Guest, Prof. Upul B. Dissanayake, the Vice Chancellor, University of Peradeniya as the Guest of Honor accompanied by academics, scientists, research students, medical experts, engineers, managers, legislators, policy makers and representatives from non-governmental organizations.

Keynote speech of the conference will be delivered by Prof. KamaniWanigasuriya (Professor in Medicine, Faculty of Medical S c i e n c e s, U n i ve r s i t y of Sri Jayewardenepura). D r. NishanthaNanayakkara, Consultant Nephrologist, Teaching Hospital, Kandy, Prof. C. B. Dissanayake, Prof. O. A. Ileperuma, Mr. Pathmalal M. Manage will deliver the invited lectures at the introductory session.

CKDu has been emerged as a significant public health issue in Sri Lanka. Reportedly, the disease has been clustered in five provinces in the country. Most of the causative hypotheses to the CKDu are related to quality of water and the people who do not have access to safe pipe borne water become more vulnerable to the disease. According to recent statistics, there are around 1,500 Sri Lankans die to the CKDu every year. Therefore it has become a nationally important issue which needs the attention of scientific community. Thus, given the national significance of the disease, the Faculty of Science, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka is going to organize this ‘big event’ in order to provide an excellent platform to highlight the scientific aspects of the disease through technical papers, oral and poster presentations by the research community.

The conference aims to provide a forum for analytical and solution- based discussions, to disseminate knowledge and information on current research activities andto exchange ideas with eminent researchers from around the world who are currently involved in CKDu research.The technical sessions will be held under five broad themes including, Potential causative factors of CKDu, Geo-environmental and sociological aspects, Epidemiology of CKDu, Clinical characteristics and disease progression and Early detection and Management of CKDu.

Currently Sri Lankan scientists have initiated number ofresearch projects in collaboration with Germany, USA, Australia and China to cope with the devastating CKDu epidemic. The current status of these international collaborative effortswill also present at the introductory session of the conference. Dr. Adi Paterson (Chief Executive Officer, ANSTO, Australia), Prof. Penny Vlahos (University of Connecticut, USA), Prof. Y. S. Wei ( University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing) and Prof. J. A. C. Barth ( University of Erlangen, Germany)will also speak at the event. Prof. S. K. Yatigammana, Head, Department of Zoology, University of Peradeniya will be the Chairperson of the conference. For more information, visit http:// sci. pdn. ac. lk/CKDu/.