Tuberculosis is still an important cause of human suffering and economic loss in Brazil and beyond. A concerted effort to address all the questions related to TB control is needed, involving Universities and Health Departments. The Millenium TB Network was organized in 2001 with the goal to generate new knowledge about the disease; to train highly qualified professionals with a critical view of the problem and to transfer the new information to the health system. For many years, leading American academic institutions working in Brazil recognized the importance of this initiative. The major goal of this proposal is to develop a competitive application for a Comprehensive ICOHRTA-AIDS/TB Cooperative Agreement linking Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and other collaborating sites in Brazil and Johns Hopkins University, Cornell University and UC Berkeley as collaborating sites in the U.S.
The specific aims are 1) To establish a multilateral collaborative training program in tuberculosis control with investigators and physicians from Brazil and Johns Hopkins, Cornell, and Berkeley Universities.2) To establish a network system between the different institutions and individuals participating in the program in Brazil and USA in order to promote frequent consultation between the partners to define the type of didactic and laboratory training in health sciences pertinent to tuberculosis control. 3) To identify the needs in infra-structure, human rights protection, administration necessary to the establishment of a long-term term collaborative program on TB and AIDS/TB research. The major task of this new consortium will be to identify possible interactions between these partners, in order to guarantee efficiency in the actions. The goal will be to link separate projects, funded by several sources, into one multicenter and organized research and training program to address the TB problem at the national and, in the future, continental levels. During the planning year, projects that share similar objectives will be linked, needs at the collaborating sites, identified, and a common training and research agenda in TB will be developed.
