Institutional Collaborations in Public Health and Medicine

Harvard and the Instituto Pedro Kourí (IPK) of Tropical Medicine have initiated a project to promote scientific collaboration and exchange between Cuban and Harvard scientists in the areas of public health and medicine. The IPK is Cuba 's leading research institute and treatment center in the control and eradication of infectious diseases in Cuba and elsewhere. The public health initiative has three main objectives:

 

1) to increase scientific collaboration and exchange between the IPK and Harvard;

2) to improve understanding of the functioning of Cuban health care system, the success achieved by Cuba in controlling at eradicating infectious disease and the role of institutions such as IPK in the public health system; and,

3) to support the development and dissemination of public health work currently underway in Cuba 's scientific and research laboratories and institutions.

The main topics of the project include: tuberculosis, sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS, bacterial and viral respiratory infections, dengue, hepatitis, mycology, acute diarrheal disease, molecular biology of infectious disease, molecular epidemiology of infectious disease, immunology of infectious disease and social science analyses of infectious disease.

Collaborating Harvard faculty:

Arachu Castro, Assistant Professor in Social Medicine, Department of Social Medicine; Academic Director in Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change, Harvard Medical School

John David, Richard Pearson Strong Professor of Tropical Public Health, Emeritus
Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health

Paul Farmer, Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Medical Anthropology, Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Associate Chief, Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Founding Director, Partners In Health

Donald Harn, Professor of Tropical Public Health,
Harvard School of Public Health

Jim Kim, Associate Clinical Professor of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Chief, Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Co-founder, Partners In Health

Eric Rubin, Associate Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health

Michael Starnbach, Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School

Collaborating Institutions:

Instituto de Medicina Tropical "Pedro Kourí" (IPK) [Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine]

Visiting Scholars from Cuba & Topics Studied:

Enrique Beldárrain Chaple: Major epidemics in the Americas from 1492-2000.

Anselmo Otero: Optimization of Protein and Nucleotide Adjuvants with Immunoestimulatory Properties

Roberto Fernández: Certification Procedures for BL-3 Facility

Gustavo Kourí, Jorge Pérez Ávila and Guadalupe Guzmán: Cuba's Healthcare System & AIDS Research & Treatment

Mayra Mune Jiménez: Dengue Virus Vaccine with DNA Immunization

Lisette Pérez: HIV Load Viral Testing

Beatriz Sierra: HLA Class I genes and Dengue in Cuba, 1981-1997

Vivian Kourí Cardella: Kaposi's Sarcoma associated with Herpes Virus (KSHV)

Alicia Reyes Jiménez: HIV/AIDS Resource Allocation

Jorge Luis Maestre Mesa: Investigation of the function of virulence regulators of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis using Genome-Wide Location Analysis

Rayner Rodríguez: The role of cytotoxic T-lymphocytes in the immune response to bacterial infections such as Chlamydia

Raul Díaz: A comparison of two PCR-based DNA fingerprinting methods for typing Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

Upcoming Events: INSTITUTE OF TROPICAL MEDICINE PEDRO KOURÍ (IPK), 10th International Course On DENGUE & DENGUE HEMORRHAGIC FEVER , August 9-11, 2007
More Information

Applied Medical Anthropology Research on the Impact of AIDS Treatment

Harvard Medical School Professor Arachu Castro and a research team headed by Dr. Jorge Pérez from Cuba’s Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro Kourí (IPK) are undertaking a joint research project seeking to examine AIDS-related stigma and discrimination and the impact of the provision of effective AIDS therapy on quality of life and the illness experience of AIDS patients. The project seeks to explore whether the transformation of AIDS from an inevitably fatal disease to a chronic and manageable one has decreased stigma and increased the quality of life of people receiving effective therapy. With support from the Ford Foundation and Atlantic Philanthropies, this study also seeks to understand how the social experience of AIDS is affected by access to effective therapy and how, in turn, changes in social experience alter the social construction of stigma.

Participating Harvard faculty: Arachu Castro, Assistant Professor in Social Medicine, Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change, Harvard Medical School

Collaborating Institutions: Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro Kourí (IPK), Cuba

The Pathogenesis of Histoplasmosis

Scientists from Harvard Medical School, the Harvard School of Public Health and the Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro Kourí intend to initiate a research collaboration to examine the pathogenesis of histoplasmosis, a fungal disease that is endemic in Cuba and much of the Caribbean along with parts of the American Midwest. Presenting a range of symptoms, from asymptomatic infection to life-threatening disease, particularly among immunocompromised individuals, little is known about how the causative organism, histoplasma capsulatum, causes histoplasmosis. The goal of the collaboration is to develop a sustainable research program in Cuba to advance knowledge on this disease by combining expertise in microbial genetics and immunology with the IPK´s unique collection of a large number of clinical isolates of histoplasma capsulatum.

Participating Harvard Faculty: Eric Rubin, Associate Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health; and, Michael Starnbach, Assistant Professor in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School.

Collaborating Institutions: Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro Kourí (IPK), Cuba

Resource Allocation Practices in the Prevention and Care of AIDS in the Caribbean

Sponsored by: Harvard Medical School, the David Rockefeller Center Latin American Studies at Harvard University, the Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro Kouri (IPK) and the Pan Caribbean Partnership (PANCAP) against HIV/AIDS of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)

The Caribbean, with an adult HIV prevalence of 2.3 percent has the second highest rate of HIV infection in the world, second only to sub-Saharan Africa, with 440,000 people already living with HIV/AIDS. Prevalence rates vary from country to country. By 2003, adult prevalence of HIV/AIDS exceeded 5.6 percent in Haiti, 2,5 percent in Trinidad and Tobago, 1.7 in the Dominican Republic, 1.2 in Jamaica, while in Cuba the prevalence was estimated to be less than 0.1 percent.

The response to AIDS in the Caribbean has faced many challenges, due partly to administrative and resource constraints. The impact of HIV/AIDS has been more severe as it has hit already weakened economies and struggling health systems. Moreover, the emergence of HIV/AIDS brings new challenges to Caribbean economies and their health systems' it requires a comprehensive response involving many aspects of health systems, namely public health responsibilities, financing, social protection in health, and service provision. Most countries in the Caribbean are encountering a gap between the resources currently available for AIDS control programs from international and national sources and the minimum levels needed to adequately address the epidemic as recommended by the 3 by 5 Initiative of the World Health Organization.

To spur this much-needed research into how to most effectively allocate resources for HIV/AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean region, Harvard Medical School, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University and the Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro Kouri (IPK) and the Pan Caribbean Partnership (PANCAP) against HIV/AIDS of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) sponsored a Workshop on Resource Allocation Practices in the Prevention and Care of AIDS in the Caribbeanon March 29, 2005. In preparation for the workshop, the organizers invited leading researchers who have conducted research on this important topic in the Caribbean to contribute presentations and papers that served as the case studies for discussion during the workshop. The organizers of this project also concurrently developed a methodological framework for the analysis of resource allocation practices in the Caribbean that will serve as a guideline for evaluating the outcomes observed in each country study.

This project represents a valuable step towards a broader, expanded analysis of AIDS in the Caribbean, which examines the financial impact of providing comprehensive AIDS care in the region. It seeks to contribute to the integration between financial management and the evaluation of comprehensive AIDS care. This research on the AIDS epidemic in the Caribbean will prove invaluable for future efforts to control the epidemic in the region, and will help ensure the provision of high quality, comprehensive prevention, treatment, care and support for those affected by HIV/AIDS.