Havana, October 14 (RHC-PL) -- Aimed at providing a space for the presentation and debate of the latest developments in that area, the Eighth Cuban Congress on Microbiology and Parasitology got underway today at Havana's Conference Center and will run until October 16th.

Advances in the research of bacterial, mycotic, viral, and parasitic infectious diseases; diagnosis, epidemiology, clinical and pathology, will be addressed through lectures, symposiums, roundtable discussions and oral presentations.

The Fifth National Congress on Tropical Medicine and the Fifth Seminar on HIV/AIDS infection in Cuba are also running parallel to the event.

The main issues of the congress will be HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, dengue, malaria, cholera, influenza, microbial resistance, strengthening of capacities, and globalization of infectious diseases.

Working sessions will feature papers and lectures by renowned experts from the Caribbean island, as well as some 17 nations, among them South Korea, Colombia, the United States, Brazil, Peru, Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Argentina, Turkey and Spain.