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CDCs researchers have a dual role. They not only identify the microbes, risk factors, and epidemiologic conditions that lead to outbreaks, but also conduct applied research on ways to detect, prevent, and control them. Maintaining a comprehensive diagnostic and investigative capacity goes hand-in-hand with maintaining a broad-based research program on endemic and epidemic diseases that includes studies in applied epidemiology, microbiology, and behavioral and social science. A research program on diseases that are uncommon in the United States is a valuable resource, both for humanitarian reasons and because of the dangers represented by some imported diseases. Had scientists begun to study slim diseasenow known as AIDSwhen the syndrome was described in central Africa in the late 1970s,12 the world health community might have learned much earlier how HIV is acquired and what can be done to prevent its spread. An in-depth knowledge of a wide range of infectious pathogens can also facilitate the identification and characterization of new microbes that emerge in the United States. One example concerns hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), an often-fatal disease first identified in 1993 in the Four Corners region of the United States. In 1993 hantavirus research was a low priority in the United States, because hantavirus-associated disease had never before been recognized in the Western Hemisphere. However, a few laboratories supported by DoD had continued to collect information on a hantaviral disease called Korean hemorrhagic fever or hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) that killed a significant number of United Nations troops during the Korean Conflict. Because of these HFRS studies, the CDC outbreak team in Four Corners was armed with sophisticated serologic and molecular tools that allowed them to diagnose HPS in a short time. Because it was known that the HFRS hantavirus is transmitted by rodents, the team rapidly honed in on the animal reservoir of the HPS virus and provided disease prevention guidelines to the people in the area. Several fundamental precepts inform CDCs infectious disease research collaborations with other countries. First, the overriding purpose of CDCs research work overseas is to lead the way in demonstrating how individuals and governments can best prevent and control disease. Second, it is important for CDC to help strengthen international research capacity by supporting extramural research at home and abroad, through collaborations, cooperative agreements, and peer-reviewed grants. Third, CDCs research activities must be rooted in bioethical principles, respecting the needs and rights of human research subjects. Fourth, CDC must strive to engage new research partners, in addition to its traditional partners at universities and schools of public health. Research collaborators may include scientists from private companies, NGOs, and other U.S. agencies (e.g., NIH, FDA, DoD, NASA, NOAA, and USDA).
Long-term, on-site research collaborations are especially important, because it is often very difficult to study new and hazardous pathogens while an outbreak is in progress. Long-term partnerships with in-country research institutions may be mutually beneficial, facilitating collaborative field research and clinical studies, providing opportunities for technology transfer and training, and building international friendships and trust within the scientific and public health communities. |
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Date published: 2002 |
National
Center for Infectious Diseases |