The IID&GH Training Program will offer three major courses that rotate between the major research sites. All of the trainees will attend the annual Major Course.

1) Ecology of Infectious Diseases (Eco ID) (offered in Winnipeg in years 1 and 4): This graduate course, developed at the UM by the Training Program, demonstrates to students the inter-relatedness of infectious diseases with their physical, social, biological, and cultural surroundings. The course was offered in the 2004/2005 academic year and there were 18 students in the class, and in 2006/2007 there were 10 students. The course is overseen by two coordinators (Drs. Fowke [basic science] and Elliott [clinical/epidemiology – see short CV]) who provide some lectures and lead all of the 26 sessions. During the first section of the course, infectious diseases are viewed from a number of different perspectives such as pathogenesis, clinical science, host responses to infection, molecular epidemiology, public health interventions, medical anthropology, global health, international infectious disease prevention/control, spatial aspects and ethnographic approaches to IDs, Aboriginal issues in infectious diseases, zoonotic infections and pandemic preparedness. In the second section, a number of applied topics are covered, designed to improve the students’ ability to plan, prepare and execute a scientific proposal as well as prepare for their future as researchers. Topics in this section of the course include; research design and statistical issues, introduction to research ethics, use of medical administrative databases, research translation/communication, intellectual property, research commercialization, grant writing and reviewing.

Since the whole focus of the course is to explore infectious diseases from a multi-disciplinary approach, the final assignment is to write a CIHR-format grant, for which the topic cannot be related to the trainees’ own research area, and that has to involve at least two of the CIHR pillars. On the student course evaluations, mean overall satisfaction with the course was 8.7 out of 10, and the grant writing assignment was given a mean rating of 9.0 out of 10. All students indicated that they would recommend the course to others.

The following are some specific comments from trainees:

• “Overall, the course was excellent – one of the best I have taken.”
• “I think the format is the best feature of the course.”
• “It (the course) made me more sensitive to the need for a multi-disciplinary approach to ID’s.”
• “Every lecture was a tour de force.”
• “Would highly recommend to other students.”
• “Multi-disciplinary approach was great. I learned so much.”
• “The grant writing exercise was immediately useful, highly applicable, directly relevant. Gold.”

2) Planning, implementing and evaluating scaled HIV prevention programs among vulnerable populations in resource-poor settings (offered in Bangalore in Years 2 and 5)

This course is based on an existing course developed by Stephen Moses, Jamie Blanchard, and colleagues in India with the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT), based in Bangalore. Targeted interventions focusing on groups at high risk for HIV are the cornerstone of HIV prevention programming in most developing country settings, including India. Such programs usually comprise peer-mediated outreach services, risk reduction counselling, condom promotion and provision, treatment and control of other sexually transmitted infections, risk reduction for sex partners, and enhancing the enabling environment. KHPT has been implementing and managing such programs for a number of years, in a variety of different settings, and has provided training in this regard for program planners, implementers and trainers throughout India.

The course is of two weeks duration, and focuses on methods and approaches for planning, evaluating, and scaling up HIV preventive intervention programs targeted to high risk groups, in international settings. The objective of the training is to enhance participants’ knowledge and skills for implementing such programs, using an experiential approach. Specific sessions include: epidemiology and control of HIV infection; mapping of groups at high risk for HIV and situation assessment; understanding HIV risk and vulnerability; principles of community outreach and community mobilization; communication strategies for HIV/AIDS; provision of services for the prevention, treatment and control of sexually transmitted infections, including evaluation of service utilization and quality; enhancing the enabling environment for undertaking targeted HIV prevention programs; advocacy with government, police, the media and the general population; HIV voluntary testing and counselling among high risk populations; positive prevention, and linking HIV positive individuals with treatment and care services; monitoring and evaluating HIV prevention programs, including the development of computerized management information systems; and capacity building for program implementers. Together with Centre for Aboriginal Health Research, issues of the vulnerability of aboriginal communities in North America and effective directed interventions will also be explored.

3) Clinical Trials and International Research Ethics Course (offered in Nairobi in years 3 and 6):
The first week of this course will focus on the clinical trial which is the gold standard to evaluate a new drug or health intervention. This course, led by Dr. Joshua Kimani, who has extensive experience as a clinical trials site monitor in African and Asia, will provide trainees with sessions on; Basics of Clinical Research, Best Practices Models: Good Laboratory Practice/Good Clinical Practice, Ethical Issues in Clinical and International Researcher, Data Collection and Document Management in Clinical Trials, Clinical Trials Management, Cohort Development, Clinical Trials Monitoring and Site Assessment. Dr. Fowke has collaborated with the St. Boniface Office of Clinical Research (OCR) in the past and they have expressed an interest in collaborating on delivering a clinical trials course in Kenya. The OCR has a collection of well established courses they offer in clinical trials and working with our Kenya colleagues they can be adapted for the Nairobi course.

The second week of this course will focus on International Research Ethics. Coordinated by Joe Kaufert from the University of Manitoba, this course will explore issues of community consent, ethical collaborations between North-South partners, and the ethics of research in highly vulnerable communities among other topics. The course will be co-presented by Ross Upshur of the University of Toronto’s Joint Centre for Bioethics and Eric Meslin of Indiana University’s Center for Bioethics (see letter of collaboration). Both of these investigators have existing collaborations and projects with African colleagues and have presented courses in Africa as part of their NIH Fogarty Training Program grant in international bioethics.

Course information is available under the Course Information link in the left menu.