The Global Infectious Disease Research Training Program

This program is sponsored by the John E Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in The Health Sciences (FIC) Founded in 1968. The Center bears the name of a U.S. Congressman of great vision, who advocated international co-operation in the interest of the health of mankind. The Center has grown into a multi million dollar enterprise which extends to over 100 countries and involves many thousands of scientists in the United States and abroad.

The current GIDRTP was developed through the efforts of the current director of PNGIMR, Dr. Peter Siba, and Drs John Reeder (PNG IMR Director 2000-2006) and Peter Zimmerman (Principal Investigator, Case Western Reserve University). The two institutions involved have a longstanding partnership which was initiated in1982 and focused on filariasis.

By the mid-1990s the IMR/CWRU program had expanded to include other research activities into aspects of other infectious diseases: malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and others. The need to employ appropriately trained staff to undertake and continue future research became increasingly apparent. At this point it was decided that although maintenance of international collaboration was important, the most effective strategy would be to train PNG nationals, familiar with the country’s rich cultural diversity, to undertake biomedical research focussing directly on the explicit needs of the PNG National Health Plan (2001-2010). The GIDRTP was established in 2006 and works in cooperation with UPNG, the country’s premier university.