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Press Release for World Thyroid Day, May 25th, and International Thyroid Awareness Week, May 25th to 31st, 2019

A note from Ashok Bhaseen, President of Thyroid Federation International

“There are still many people living with some kind of thyroid disorder without diagnosis. The International Thyroid Awareness Week is now in its 11th year, and I promise, we at Thyroid Federation International and its member countries won’t rest until testing and diagnosis rates improve globally. This year we’re helping people to recognize the many faces of thyroid disorders so they can visit a healthcare professional and get tested as soon as possible.“

Look for patient programs on education and awareness in your country or visit the Thyroid Federation website in your country.

How to get involved in this year’s campaign

If you’re on social media, keep up with the campaign via our channels on Twitter and Facebook, and play your part in the global movement by using the hashtag #ITAW19. This will help us raise awareness of thyroid disorders, which affect more than 200 million people worldwide as per ATA (American Thyroid Association).

Visit us on www.thyroidweek.org and www.thyroid-fed.org

Why are we doing this?

ITAW, now in its 11th year, was created to highlight the detrimental impact that thyroid disorders have on people’s quality of life when left undiagnosed. Around 1.6 billion people worldwide are thought to be at risk, with hundreds of millions living with a thyroid condition right now.[i] Up to 60% of those living with a thyroid disorder are undiagnosed, and people may be needlessly struggling through their everyday lives without knowing the root cause of their symptoms.[ii]

However, once diagnosed, thyroid disorders are treatable, and the ITAW campaign is pushing hard to improve testing and diagnoses globally.

i Khan A, Khan MM, Akhtar S. Thyroid disorders, etiology and prevalence. J Med Sci 2002; 2: 89–94. Available at: http://www.scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jms.2002.89.94&org=11 Last accessed February 2019.

ii American Thyroid Association. General Information/Press Room. Available at: https://www.thyroid.org/media-main/press-room/  Last accessed February 2019.

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The 16th International Thyroid Congress, 8-13 Sep 2020, Xian, China

The 16th International Thyroid Congress will be held in Xi’an, China, on September 8-13, 2020 with the Chinese Society of Endocrinology composing the Local Organizing Committee.  This was officially announced at the Closing Session of the 15th ITC held at the Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin Resort in Orlando, Florida, USA.  An audio-visual presentation for the 16th ITC was shown followed by the invitation speech by Weiping Teng, AOTA Vice President and Chair of the LOC.

This will be the third time that AOTA will host the ITC following a system of rotation among the 4 Sister Societies in Thyroidology.  Sydney (Australia) hosted the 8th ITC in 1980 and Kyoto (Japan) the 12th ITC in 2000.

Xi’an is the capital of Shanxi Province, China, and the cultural and educational center of west China. It is a popular center for international conferences and exhibitions.  Once the political, economic and cultural center of China, Xi’an has been the first Chinese city open up to the outside world and the starting point of the well-known Silk Road.  The video presentation featured places of interest of the old and the new faces of the ITC host city.

www.itc2020.org 

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The 12th Congress of AOTA, 16-19 Mar 2017, Busan, Korea

The 12th Asia & Oceania Thyroid Association (AOTA) Congress held in Lotte Hotel Busan, Korea, during March 16-19, 2017 has been recently concluded with great success.
The congress was held in conjunction with Korea Thyroid Association (KTA) annual meeting and was co-chaired by Prof. Won Bae Kim and Prof. In Joo Kim. Since Korea had held the 4th AOTA congress chaired by Prof. Munho Lee, in Seoul, in 1989, it was the second time for Korea to host the AOTA congress.
The number of registered participants and accompanying persons in Busan AOTA 2017 was 592 from 25 countries represented (as of Mar 19). Participants were not only from AOTA member countries (Korea(324), Japan(61), Indonesia(61), Philippines(32), Taiwan(25), China(20), India(15), Australia(10), Singapore(8), Bangladesh(2), Iran(1)), but also from non-member countries (Malaysia(7), Thailand(5), Myanmar(3), Unites States(3), Canada(2), Germany(2), Morocco(2), Turkey(1), Oman(1), Saudi Arabia(1), Hong Kong(1), Russia(1), Netherland(1), Italy(1), and Kazahkstan(1)).

 The congress started on March 16th with preconference activities including Thyroid Ultrasound Course and Joint Symposium by Working Group of Asian Thyroid FNA Cytology. In opening session, Prof. Duncan Topliss from Australia delivered an opening lecture with the title of ‘Recent Advances in Thyroid Diseases’ and a Memorial Lecture for passed Professor Emeritus Dr. Shigenobu Nagataki was dedicated by Prof. Shunich Yamashita from Nagasaki, Japan.
Scientific program were consisted of plenary lecture, 2 special lectures, 11 symposium sessions, 10 meet-the-professor sessions, 12 oral sessions and so on, which is the most voluminous program ever in the AOTA congresses. Totally 319 abstracts were submitted for scientific sessions, and 8 papers were awarded as distinguished abstracts (Prakash Gangadaran from Bangladesh, Hidefumi Inaba, Shinichi Suzuki and Yasuyo Nakajima from Japan, Soo Yeon Hahn and Eun Ju Ha from Korea, Sukriti Kumar from India and Xiaoxiao Cao from China).

AOTA prize of year 2017 awardee was Prof. Weiping Teng from China, but AOTA prize lecture was cancelled due to absence of awardee. LOC supported 29 registrants with travel grants (500 USD for each) based on country of presenter (low –middle income countries by World Bank) and quality of abstract.
The congress was a great success not only in the number of participants but in quality of scientific sessions. The congress was closed, pledging to meet again in the next AOTA congress which will be held in Sydney, Australia in 2019.