Malaria remains one of the major health problems in Sub-Saharan Africa, with over 90% of the total populations at risk of infection. Malaria is responsible for the death of about one million children under the age of five year. Recent estimates of the direct and indirect costs of malaria exceeded US $2.5 billion in 1999, and this figure is likely to increase in future years. Due to the lack of malaria expertise in endemic countries, particularly in Africa, we propose to develop a training program to expand the capabilities of scientists and health professionals in Senegal with the goal of strengthening the scientific foundations for malaria research in the country. This research training program emphasizes two major areas of malaria research-Pathogenesis, immunology, and parasite diversity; and Epidemiology and vector control. The educational emphasis of this proposal is for long-term research training of graduate and post-doctoral students, with a scientific focus linked to collaborative projects based in Senegal. Collaborating faculty participating in this program have primary expertise in molecular parasitology, immunology, cellular biology, epidemiology, entomology and population studies. Although most are based at the Harvard School of Public Health, the Naval Medical Research Institute, The University of Leiden in the Netherlands, and Oxford University in Britain are represented. One aspect of this program will be problem oriented malaria research workshops to be conducted in Senegal among with other training programs described in the RFA. Numerous malaria-related courses, seminars and workshops all coordinated by the faculty at HSPH, will be made available for trainees. Selection of candidates will be made by a program committee based upon previous academic performance and experience of the trainees, as well as their future potential in Senegal. The long-term objective of this program is to train scientists and health professionals from Senegal who will become experts in malaria and contribute significantly to the advancement of malaria research in their own country and other African countries. In addition, this group of trainees will be able to identify scientific priorities and the means to pursue, strengthen and sustain, through collaborative research training, malaria research required to develop or improve the tools for malaria prevention and control in Senegal.
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