LEADING THE WAY FOR SOUTH-SOUTH COLLABORATIONS TO COMBAT INFECTIOUS DISEASE: The collaboration between the UAB Sparkman Center and the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH), Lima, Peru dates back to 1983, when the Center assisted UPCH in developing a Master of Public Health (MPH) Program. In the last decade, UPCH has developed this MPH program into a full-fledged school of public health. The two institutions have continued to engage in various research and educational activities of mutual interests, thus forging a strong link between UAB and UPCH. The UPCH School of Public Health, the School of Medicine, and its affiliated Tropical Disease Institute are the key units at UPCH engaged in activities with various UAB units (Schools of Public Health and Medicine, and UAB Centers).

Partnership with the Sparkman Center for Global Health was formalized in 2001; the UPCH started to expand its existing Master of Science (MS) degree in Infectious Diseases into a regional MPH Program in Infectious Disease Control and Prevention for all of Spanish-speaking Latin America. Infectious disease control remains an urgent priority in Peru as well as the entire Latin American region; thus, with its central location, tremendous clinical and community health teaching base, as well as relative affordability for Latin Americans, UPCH has emerged as a leader in South-South regional training for disease control and prevention.

A dozen UAB faculty travel to Peru yearly for personal, research, or teaching purposes, and the heads of the UPCH Tropical Disease Institute and School of Public Health make regular visits to UAB. Collaborative research on malaria and the annual Gorgas Course in Clinical Tropical Medicine in Lima, Peru, were among major activities between UAB and Peru.

GOALS: To support the upgrade of the Master of Science curriculum to an MPH in Infectious Disease Control and Prevention at the UPCH; and, to sustain this platform for public and tropical health training and research in the region.

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia