Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases
International Research
Infectious diseases account for over 25% of global mortality. Mortality
figures, however, give only a partial measure of the toll infectious
diseases continue to take. The so-called neglected diseases result
in severe and permanent disabilities and deformities, and affect
almost exclusively the poor populations living in remote areas
beyond the reach of health services. Effective measures to control
these agents is lacking in most cases. Many of the EMD faculty
members have programs and collaborate with endemic country scientists
in order to develop effective and novel means to control these
diseases and have often sponsored student projects overseas for the Downs International Health Fellowships. Some of the ongoing projects
overseas are:
Nadia Abdala – Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Prevention
Risk assessment of STDs among intravenous drug users (IDUs) of
the needle exchange program in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Serap Aksoy – Control of African trypanosomiasis and
leishmaniasis
Development of tsetse-based strategies for control of African trypanosomiasis
in Uganda and Kenya. Interactions
between sand fly vectors and Leishmania parasites in Colombia.
Michael Cappello -Hookworm pathogenesis
Field studies in Haiti, Ecuador,
and the Philippines characterize human immune responses
to hookworm infection, with emphasis given to parasite secretory
antigens.
Robert Heimer – HIV/AIDS Transmission and Prevention
Research on HIV transmission through liquid drug injection and sexual
risk behaviors of drug users in Russia for disease
prevention. The role of social network-based HIV prevention approaches
for intervention in Russia.
Kaveh Khoshnood – HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis Research
Research on the scientific design and evaluation of HIV/AIDS and
TB prevention and control among drug users and other marginalized
groups in India, China, South
Africa, Russia and Iran.
Leonard E. Munstermann – Genetics of phlebotomine sand
flies
Sand fly distributions, identification and assessment of risk for
leishmaniasis and bartonellosis in Honduras, El
Salvador, Guatemala and the South American
countries of Colombia, Ecuador,
Peru.
Diane McMahon-Pratt – Control of Leishmaniasis
Studies in Colombia and Spain
focus on the development of mammalian vaccines for visceral and
cutaneous leishmaniasis. Collaborative studies in Brazil
have involved the human immune response during and after Leishmania
infection to vaccine candidate antigens, as well as studies of
Leishmania protein-targeting mechanisms.
Christian Tschudi - Genetics of trypanosomes
Research in Israel and Brazil
focuses on applying genetic tools to dissect the life cycle of trypanosomes.
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