The three-day conference being organised by the Department of Parasitology, PGIMER, in association with Indian Academy of Tropical Parasitology (IATP) started at the PGI on Tuesday.

Prof R C Sobti, Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University, inaugurated the conference and stressed on the importance of parasitic infections in both humans as well as animals, and their impact on health.

The best paper awards for presentation of papers during the second IATP conference in 2008 were given to Dr Dey (Best Oral presentation) and Dr Anupam Das (Best Poster presentation). Prof SC Parija, President of IATP bestowed the Fellowship of IATP to Prof R Sehgal of Department of Parasitology, for his contributions to the field of Clinical Parasitology.

The inaugural session was followed by the presidential address by Prof SC Parija who spoke on the increasing importance of parasitic infections.

With the spread of the AIDS pandemic, there has been a comeback of many parasitic diseases and emergence of new ones.

Subsequent to this address, Prof RC Mahajan delivered the IATP address and highlighted the present scenario of parasitic infections in India.

He emphasised that parasitic infections still remained a great public health problem in the country.

Prof Mahajan added that certain infection, which were near eradication, were again re-emerging due to various factors.