International West Africa Symposium and Workshop on Infectious Diseases

PROJECT SUMMARY West African countries suffer enormous impacts due to infectious diseases such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, Lassa, Ebola and Dengue. Despite the high relevance of basic and clinical research studies and the abundant availability of patient-derived samples and data, most of the sixteen West African nations lag behind developed nations and many other African nations in combating these epidemics. As a result, it is increasingly recognized that there is great value in increasing opportunities for West African scientists, particularly from countries such as Sierra Leone, which have been slower to progress as compared to others like Ghana and Nigeria. One goal is to have them participate more in basic and clinical research, both as independent researchers and as part of international consortia and collaborations. Until now, however, there has been little opportunity to bring the entire West African infectious disease research community together with leading researchers from other African nations and beyond. For this reason, we propose to hold the first International West Africa Symposium and Workshop on Infectious Diseases in Freetown, Sierra Leone. There are four specific objectives of this meeting. First, we aim to bring together the international infectious disease community in Sierra Leone to facilitate infectious disease research on a number of key pathogens highly relevant to the region. To accomplish this goal, we are planning a series of keynote and plenary speakers from many leading experts in the field from within Africa and around the world, along with a poster session, talks selected from poster abstracts and other activities including a site visit. Since the challenges in this field are daunting and will require collaborative efforts to solve, a second goal is to enhance interactions between diverse groups, such as academic basic science, epidemiological, clinical and translational science, as well as non-governmental and governmental institutions. To this end, we are specifically inviting participants representing these groups, with sessions to facilitate knowledge exchange and collaborations. A third objective is to bring hands-on training and workshops that our team is uniquely positioned to provide. To this end, there will be several days of workshops taught by experts and developed in close collaboration with team members on the ground in Sierra Leone, who understand the local needs. A fourth objective is to invest intellectually and financially in the future by supporting promising young trainees. The goal is to encourage trainees to be successful and stay in the field by providing intellectual support through discussions and mentorship with senior scientists, poster sessions, opportunities to speak, awards that recognize their achievements, and by providing financial support with competitive travel awards. The expected outcomes are increased collaborations between scientists working in different disciplines, retention of young scientists in the field, identification of new opportunities to mesh basic and clinical research, and exploration of new approaches for the study of infectious diseases and strategies to combat them.