The 8th International Symposium on Emerging Viral Diseases was held in Wuhan from October 20^th to 22^nd. The conference was hosted by Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and jointly organized by State Key Laboratory of Virology, WIV, CAS, Hubei & Wuhan Society for Microbiology, Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, CAS, Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, WIV, CAS and Virologica Sinica. More than 300 people from 12 countries including China, the United States, France, Singapore, Australia, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, Estonia, Kenya and Pakistan attended the symposium.

At the opening ceremony, WANG Yanyi, the Deputy Director General of WIV, CAS, delivered a speech on behalf of the organizers and expressed warm welcome to the experts and representatives attending the symposium. She pointed out that the frontier basic research and applied research of emerging infectious diseases, pathogenic mechanism, prevention and control technology are the key research areas of our institute. This Symposium has become a branded international academic activity sponsored by WIV, which is committed to playing an active role in the prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases in the world, and strives to promote international exchanges and cooperation in this research.

The symposium presented the latest achievements in the field of emerging viral diseases research, including keynote speeches, oral reports, and poster presentations. The symposium was set up with four themes of “Emerging Viral Pathogens”, “Viral-host Interaction”, “Antiviral Immunity” and “Arbovirus”. A total of 34 reporters from 10 countries gave wonderful reports on the SARS coronavirus, MERS coronavirus, influenza virus, Ebola virus, Nipah virus, Zika virus and other important emerging viruses. Prof. WANG Linfa from Duke-NUS Medical School, Prof. Ralph Baric from University of North Carolina, Dr.Peter Daszak from Ecohealth Alliance, Prof. SHI Peiyong from University of Texas Medical Branch, USA, and Prof. JAING Shibo from Fudan University make plenary lectures respectively. At the same time, the meeting specially set up the poster comparison. According to the voting results of the participants, six posters with the highest number of votes were selected and awarded.

So far, the Symposiums have been successfully held for eight sessions, and an open, high-quality academic exchange platform has been established for experts and scholars engaged in emerging virus research at home and abroad. The influence of the symposium has been increasing, and the number of participants has grown year by year. It has played a positive role in promoting the development of virology research and has been well received by delegates.