Courses in Epidemiology and Disease Control, Latin America and the Caribbean, 1980. (cont.) Commencement
Country Institution Course title Admission requirements Length date
Cuba Institute of Health Specialization in Physicians, dentists 30 months 1 September Development, Ministry
of Public Health, Havana Institute of Health Development, Ministry of Public Health, Havana School of Public Health, Mexico City School of Public Health, Mexico City Caribbean Epidemiology Center (CAREC) School of Public Health, Central Univesity of Venezuela
School of Medicine, Central University of Venezuela School of Medicine, Central University of Venezuela
epidemiology
Administration of tuberculosis control programs
Specialization in advanced epidemiology Public health with emphasis on parasitic diseases
Epidemic investigation and surveillance Epidemiological sur-veillance and disease control
Epidemiology
Epidemiology of sexually transmitted diseases
Physicians, nurses, laboratory workers Master's degree in hos-pital administration or health planning Physicians
Nurses, public health in-spectors
Physicians
Physicians
Physicians
5 weeks
10 months
8 October
12 Feburary
10 months 12 February
1 month 4 September
4 months 16 July
7 months
11 months
Reports on Meetings and Seminars
First Caribbean Workshop on Tuberculosis
This workshop was held at the Caribbean Epidemi-ology Center (CAREC) in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, from 15 to 19 October 1979. It was attended by selected epidemiologists and health coordinators from Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
In the first part of the workshop, which was devoted to presentations and discussions of technical and epi-demiological aspects of the disease, Drs. Lawrence Farer (Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia, USA), Fabio Luelmo and Jean Halet (PAHO/WHO), and David Basset (CAREC) took part. In the second part, the strategy to be followed for improving control of the disease in the region was discussed at group meet-ings. In the countries represented-and, in general, in the English-speaking Caribbean-the prevalence of tuberculosis is low, the risk of infection being 0.1-0.3 per cent annually. With the exception of occasional epidemic foci, most of those affected are adults. The downward trend of the disease is not very pronounced
(it is estimated at 5 per cent annually), however, and it is to be expected that it would reach at least 10 per cent if proper use were made of the resources available. In addition, a reorganization of the control program could substantially improve the care provided to patients with-out increasing-and perhaps even reducing-the work load of the health services.
In countries in this epidemiological situation, the goal of eradication of the disease (incidence of cases lower than 1 per 100,000 inhabitants approximately) in one generation is not an impossible task. The recom-mendations of the workshop, which emphasized the advisability of adopting a subregional strategy, are summarized below:
The participants agreed on the followi:_ ¶Conclusions
1. The development of a uniform strategy for tubercu-losis surveillance and control in the countries of the Caribbean.
2. The adoption of control measures with maximum 14
Mexico
Trinidad and Tobago Venezuela
.
'eL
.
epidemiological coverage, in accordance with the mag-nitude of the problem, in each country in the Caribbean area.
3. The execution of control programs integrated into existing health services.
4. The assignment, in all health services, of the high-est priority to the detection and treatment of sources of
infection.
5. The extension of sputum examinations to ambula-tory patients in order to facilitate case detection.
6. Identification, at the national level, of groups of professionals responsible for providing advice on the planning, organization, and evaluation of tuberculosis programs in the countries.
7. Participation of PAHO and CAREC in the co-ordination of training, surveillance, and evaluation of programs in the countriesJ
Seminar on Legionnaires' Disease
This seminar, held in Caracas from 12 to 16 Novem-ber 1979, was financed by PAHO and provided with technical and educational collaboration by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) of the United States. Its purpose was to inform selected professionals (epidemi-ologists, heads of laboratory, professors of pneumo-nology or clinical medicine, and heads of respiratory disease programs) about advances in knowledge of Legionella pneumophila and its pathology as well as to encourage research on this bacteriosis in the Region. Participants represented a number of countries in the Americas: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
'rThe Seminar closed with a general review of the dis-cussions, and each country presented a short program of planned activities for the coming year. The principal topics discussed were as follows:
a) Dissemination of the advances made in this field among interested professionals by means of epidemi-ological bulletins and meetings at the national level.
b) Development of diagnostic techniques in labora-tories, priorities being serologic diagnosis (immuno-fluorescence), direct examination, and culture in appropriate media. The need was emphasized of simul-taneously encouraging the study of other pneumonia agents by systematically using direct examination with Gram staining.
c) Research on the prevalence of Legionnaires' disease among cases of pneumonia (especially atypical pneu-monia) and study of autopsy specimens from patients that had died of pneumonia of unknown etiology.
It was agreed that all technical consultations should be addressed to the CDC experts, according to their speciality, and that requests for reagents or the presen-tation of research projects should be channeled through PAHO (specifically, through the Regional Adviser in Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases) in order to co-ordinate the activities of the countries. Reagents could be dispatched directly by CDC or, should customs diffi-culties arise, through PAHO. In the latter case, the applicant should get into touch with the PAHO/WHO office in the country concerned.
Calendar of Meetings
Meeting qf the Subcommittee obr Research osn Diarrheal Diseases o/' the PAHO Advisorv Comnlittee on Medical
Research.
Panama City, Panama, 27-28 March 1980
The Subcommittee will meet to make suggestions on * the establishment of a research program on diarrheal
diseases in the Region.
Regional Seminar on Acute Respiratory Diseases. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 12-13 April 1980
The WHO program in the field of acute respiratory disease (ARD) will be presented at this seminar. There will be a general discussion of the organization of the ARD control program, in which emphasis will be placed 15 w_-~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Y7N ·?,
