Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Board of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID) and the Local Scientific Committee I am pleased to invite you to the 21st Annual Meeting of ESPID, which will take place in Giardini Naxos, (Taormina), Sicily, April 9-11, 2003

The main themes chosen for the meeting are: "ROLE OF ATYPICAL ORGANISMS IN THE PAEDIATRIC AGE" and "IMMIGRATION AND INFECTIONS". Additional topics will be discussed during the various sessions.

These two topics focus on the growing concern about the role of Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Chlamydia pneumoniae in paediatrics (namely on respiratory and extrapulmonary manifestations and epidemiology and diagnostics), and on the frequently misdiagnosed infection problems due to the immigration waves into our continent. I am convinced that both sessions will provide useful and updated information on subjects, which are part of the everyday clinical practice (both in hospital and in ambulatory settings), especially in the case of immigration related infections, which we are not always used to diagnose and to treat. Furthermore the Meet the Problem sessions will deal with more time for open discussion with "hot" clinical and methodological problems.

The morning program will be followed by afternoon sessions, which will be open as usual, for free communication sessions and poster presentations. All participants are invited to contribute to the success of the Meeting by submitting papers dealing with their recent research on paediatric infectious diseases.

As is the tradition of ESPID Meetings, highlights will include: the Walter Marget Education Workshop, the Bill Marshall Award and Lecture, ESPID Fellowship Award, and the Young Investigator Award.
The pre-meeting sponsored symposia will concentrate on new developments in prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.

There is no doubt that the mixture of high quality scientific programs and the unique social agenda that will be offered to you in this beautiful landscape will turn the 21st ESPID into a memorable experience.

I hope to see all of ESPID's old friends as well as many new ones in Sicily.

Sincerely,

Antonio Boccazzi, M.D.
Chairman, Local Scientific Committee