One of the areas of development for the society, highlighted in its 5-year strategic plan, are the opportunities afforded by partnerships with other professional scientific organizations and societies with similar interests. Progress has been made in this area through the partnership with European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) and hosting of focused ISIRV symposia in the huge ECCMID annual conference during April 2023 in Copenhagen and in ESCMID Global in April 2024 in Barcelona. In addition, during the year ISIRV also ran a joint webinar on the topic of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) challenges and solutions webinar – Winter planning and influenza with the Healthcare Infection Society. A mini isirv symposium on the topic of genomic surveillance was hosted at ESWI meeting in Valencia October 2023.
During 2023, ISIRV took part in discussions with ReSViNET in order to establish a shared set of principles for the forward planning of scheduling for major international RW meetings hosted by ISIRV and the International Respiratory Syncytial Virus Society (iRSVs, a special interest group of ISIRV) and ReSViNET. It was agreed that the organizations would run their respective meetings focused on RSV during alternate years. Both organizations agreed there was a mutual benefit to be gained from such an agreement to benefit our shared scientific communities.
ISRV will continue to partner with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and Flu Lab to support delegates from low-and middle-income countries to attend the biennial Options and RSV conferences and other ISRV meetings.