IVI hosted ‘The Seventh International Advanced Course on Vaccinology for the Asia Pacific Region,’ an annual course designed to help countries boost their capacity in the area of vaccine evaluation, introduction and policy, from May 7-12.

The week-long course brought together nearly 100 people, including faculty and participants, from 26 countries world-wide. The participants included scientists, public health officials and decision-makers involved in vaccine development and vaccination policies, both from the private and public sectors.

 
Participants at the 7th International Advanced Course on Vaccinology for the Asia-Pacific Region on May 7, 2007. The week-long training course is designed to help countries boost their capacity in vaccine evaluation, introduction and policy.

The course aims to help countries in the developing world better cope with the threat of infectious diseases, including emerging diseases such as avian influenza, by increasing their understanding of key issues related to the development, production, evaluation and introduction of vaccines. Fifteen participants from developing countries received fellowships to attend the course.

A team of some 20 experts, including scientists from IVI and the World Health Organization (WHO) served as faculty. Dr Francis Andre, a renowned vaccine expert who led GlaxoSmithKline’s clinical development programs for over two decades, delivered a keynote closing speech on May 12 entitled, “Vaccinology: past achievements, present roadblocks and future promises.”

Over the past years, the IVI vaccinology course has grown to an important training program for the Asia Pacific region. “It is particularly encouraging to see many of the past participants in the course have now become opinion leaders in vaccines and public health in their countries,” said Dr Luis Jodar, IVI Deputy Director-General and course coordinator. “It is our intention to expand training activities in the future.”

The course is hosted jointly by IVI and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and sponsored by GSK, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development of Korea, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the KEB Foundation.