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Collaborative research and training programs in infectious diseases: summary of roundtable discussion.

Experiences from around the world recounted by infectious disease experts at the Conference on Emerging Diseases held in Kyoto, Japan, in July 1996, left no doubt in the minds of participants of the last session that emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases present an escalating global threat that cannot be met by national initiatives alone or by scattered international activities. They stated at the outset that a cohesive international program is needed to combat the threat and to attract and prepare a cadre of scientists and physicians to recognize, comprehend, control and report on emerging infections. Collaborative research was viewed as essential for maintaining scientific expertise and for empowering health science personnel to design and implement effective infectious disease control measures. The roundtable discussion, Collaborative Research and Training Opportunities, evolved within this context and its scope was broadened to include goals to be incorporated into an international agenda for the fight against emerging diseases.

The long-range effectiveness of infectious disease training, especially in the developing world, can depend on how realistic it is in terms of the facilities available at the trainee's home base and whether it is sustained by opportunities for post-training information exchange and collaborative research activities. Two highly successful programs were reviewed.

Although tuberculosis was declining in Japan in 1963 when the international training program was established at the Research Institute of Tuberculosis (TB), it remained a major international problem and, as such, was given high priority and collaborations with WHO were set up in 1965. It is a measure of its success that nearly 80 percent of the approximately 1200 former trainees from 72 countries who are still in the active work force remain in the tuberculosis field or are engaged in work related to TB. Many are directors of TB-control in their own countries.

Three training …