Media Advisory

CDC Sponsors Conference on Health in the Arctic

What

CDC co-hosts 15th International Congress on Circumpolar Health, the largest international health meeting for Arctic health issues.

When

August 5-10, 2012

Who

More than 500 physicians, public health professionals, policymakers and community members from eight Arctic nations, the United States, Canada, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden.

Where

University of Alaska Fairbanks
Fairbanks, Alaska

Why

The International Congress on Circumpolar Health is held every three years in one of the eight nations that ring the Arctic Circle. The meeting brings together health care providers, researchers and policy makers along with representatives from the region’s indigenous peoples to discuss the unique health challenges faced by those living at the top of the globe. The meeting will come full circle back to Fairbanks this year, the site of the first circumpolar health meeting in 1966. Featured topics will include: climate change and infectious diseases, food security, cancer prevention, toxins in the environment, domestic violence, birth defects and genetics and suicide prevention... Featured keynote speakers will include Alaska Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell, former head United States Arctic Research Commission and one of the world's leading Arctic policy experts, and Fran Ulmer, current chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission

Media must pre-register for the conference. Please contact the CDC press office for more details.

For more information about the conference, visit http://icch15.com/.

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES