The overall goal of this proposal is to enhance research and training activities in enteric infectious disease at the Christian Medical College, Vellore through a renewal application for a Global Infectious Disease Research and Training program from the Fogarty Intemational Center. Enteric infectious diseases continue to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality in India, and the goal of our collaborative research is to better understand, investigate, control and prevent diarrheal disease in south India. Based on a longstanding and ongoing collaborative partnership between investigators at Tufts Medical Center (TMC)/Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM) and our institution, Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, India, we aim to i) substantially increase the training of scientists from southern India, with special emphasis on clinical research, vaccinology, biostatistics and bioinformatics, ii) to extend and reinforce research and training activities to build a translational research program in enteric infectious disease, in partnership with Indian govemmental agencies for prioritization for research, iii) to facilitate the transition of trainees to independently-supported scientific careers, iv) to develop and strengthen CMC as a regional center of excellence for infectious disease research training, and v) to translate research into evidence-based medicine and public health practice related to infectious diseases in India, the results of the research carried out as a result of this and other collaborative research These aims will be accomplished by implementation of multidisciplinary training of junior and mid-level faculty from India through non-degree and degree programs. Research projects will be developed and conducted by the returning trainees, under the mentorship of program faculty. The development of global capacity in infectious diseases research is a comerstone of our ability to identify and combat diseases, such as gastrointestinal and respiratory infections, that are still a leading cause of death woridwide, particulariy in children.
Enteric infections result in direct morbidity, mortlaity and in long-term sequelae, such as delays in physical and cognitive development, which constitute 10% of all disability adjusted life years lost. This program aims to address research training needs to address the identification and measurement of disease and the prevention and treatment of illness.
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