International West Africa Symposium and Workshop on Infectious Diseases

项目总结 西非国家受到艾滋病毒、疟疾、结核病等传染病的巨大影响， 拉萨、埃博拉和登革热。尽管基础和临床研究的高度相关性和丰富的 在患者样本和数据的可用性方面，16个西非国家中的大多数落后于发达国家 联合国和许多其他非洲国家在抗击这些流行病方面发挥了重要作用。因此，它越来越受到人们的认可 增加西非科学家的机会，特别是来自这样的国家的机会，具有巨大的价值 如塞拉利昂，与加纳和尼日利亚等其他国家相比，塞拉利昂的进展较慢。一个目标 让他们更多地参与基础和临床研究，既作为独立研究人员，也作为 国际财团和合作。然而，到目前为止，几乎没有机会将整个 西非传染病研究界与其他非洲国家的领先研究人员 以及更远的地方。为此，我们建议举办首届西非国际研讨会和讲习班 关于塞拉利昂弗里敦的传染病。本次会议有四个具体目标。首先，我们 旨在将塞拉利昂的国际传染病界聚集在一起，以促进感染 对一些与该地区高度相关的关键病原体进行疾病研究。为了实现这一目标，我们正在 计划一系列主题演讲和全体演讲，来自非洲和非洲的许多该领域的领先专家 在世界各地，除了海报会议，还有从海报摘要中挑选出来的演讲和其他活动，包括 实地考察。由于这一领域的挑战令人望而生畏，需要合作努力解决，第二 目标是加强不同群体之间的互动，如学术基础科学、流行病学、 临床和转化科学，以及非政府和政府机构。为此，我们 正在特别邀请代表这些群体的与会者，举行会议以促进知识交流 和合作。第三个目标是带来我们团队独一无二的实践培训和研讨会 定位于提供。为此，将举行为期几天的研讨会，由专家讲授，并在 与塞拉利昂的实地小组成员密切合作，他们了解当地的需求。第四个 目标是通过支持有前途的年轻学员，对未来进行智力和经济上的投资。目标是 是通过以下方式提供智力支持，鼓励学员取得成功并留在现场 与资深科学家的讨论和指导，海报会议，发言机会，表彰 他们的成就，并通过提供有竞争力的旅行奖励提供财政支持。预期结果 是在不同学科工作的科学家之间加强合作，留住年轻科学家 基础和临床研究相结合的新机会的确定，以及新的 研究传染病的方法和防治传染病的战略。

PROJECT SUMMARY West African countries suffer enormous impacts due to infectious diseases such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, Lassa, Ebola and Dengue. Despite the high relevance of basic and clinical research studies and the abundant availability of patient-derived samples and data, most of the sixteen West African nations lag behind developed nations and many other African nations in combating these epidemics. As a result, it is increasingly recognized that there is great value in increasing opportunities for West African scientists, particularly from countries such as Sierra Leone, which have been slower to progress as compared to others like Ghana and Nigeria. One goal is to have them participate more in basic and clinical research, both as independent researchers and as part of international consortia and collaborations. Until now, however, there has been little opportunity to bring the entire West African infectious disease research community together with leading researchers from other African nations and beyond. For this reason, we propose to hold the first International West Africa Symposium and Workshop on Infectious Diseases in Freetown, Sierra Leone. There are four specific objectives of this meeting. First, we aim to bring together the international infectious disease community in Sierra Leone to facilitate infectious disease research on a number of key pathogens highly relevant to the region. To accomplish this goal, we are planning a series of keynote and plenary speakers from many leading experts in the field from within Africa and around the world, along with a poster session, talks selected from poster abstracts and other activities including a site visit. Since the challenges in this field are daunting and will require collaborative efforts to solve, a second goal is to enhance interactions between diverse groups, such as academic basic science, epidemiological, clinical and translational science, as well as non-governmental and governmental institutions. To this end, we are specifically inviting participants representing these groups, with sessions to facilitate knowledge exchange and collaborations. A third objective is to bring hands-on training and workshops that our team is uniquely positioned to provide. To this end, there will be several days of workshops taught by experts and developed in close collaboration with team members on the ground in Sierra Leone, who understand the local needs. A fourth objective is to invest intellectually and financially in the future by supporting promising young trainees. The goal is to encourage trainees to be successful and stay in the field by providing intellectual support through discussions and mentorship with senior scientists, poster sessions, opportunities to speak, awards that recognize their achievements, and by providing financial support with competitive travel awards. The expected outcomes are increased collaborations between scientists working in different disciplines, retention of young scientists in the field, identification of new opportunities to mesh basic and clinical research, and exploration of new approaches for the study of infectious diseases and strategies to combat them.