25 September 2002 10:00 GMT

by Bea Perks

[caption and credit]

The opening of a national center for infectious disease research in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, signals a turning point in the understanding of some of the country's biggest killers, say researchers. "We hope that as the laboratories become established we will see a big impact on our basic understanding of the immune pathogenesis of dengue, malaria, typhoid and infections of the CNS [central nervous system]," said the director of the new Department of Laboratory Sciences, Jeremy Farrar.

The new venture has been undertaken thanks to a funding collaboration between the Vietnamese government and the UK charity the Wellcome Trust. The government paid for the construction of a $1 million building to house the research, while the Wellcome Trust provided $1.5 million for laboratory equipment. In addition, the Trust has committed to fund research at the Department until at least 2005.

The vice-director of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, on whose grounds the new Department is siutated, warmly welcomed the new Department, which was officially opened last Friday. "[It] will have a great impact, not only on our research but also on the quality of patient care by improving the quality of diagnosis and treatment," said Tran Tinh Hien.

One of Hien's concerns, however, is the need for "home-grown" research in Viet Nam.

"It means nothing if we cannot be able to form a class of Vietnamese researchers after ten years!" he said. Tien, who is a consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO) on the clinical management of malaria, and whose interests lie in malaria, typhoid fever, and dengue, has worked in Viet Nam all his life.

Farrar says that there will be no more than 15 expatriate staff working at the new Department, which will house some 150 staff members. Research there will both continue and advance ongoing programs at the Hospital, which has had a collaborative research program with the Wellcome Trust since 1991. Work will still revolve around five core areas, says Farrar: malaria, dengue, infections of the CNS, typhoid and tetanus. Clinical work will be central, he says, but research will now extend into understanding mechanisms of pathogenesis in greater detail.

According to a WHO report, more than a third of the Vietnamese population, 26 million people, live in malaria endemic areas. Deaths, however, fell by 97% between 1992-7 thanks largely to a Chinese herbal medicine, called qinghaosu, that was studied in Viet Nam in 1991 in a collaborative project with the Wellcome Trust. The WHO also reports that drug resistant strains of typhoid and TB pathogens are prevalent in the country - 90% of strains of Salmonella typhi (the bacterium responsible for typhoid fever), for example, are reported to be resistant to most available drugs in the country.

"Malaria, typhoid and TB are the three areas where the biggest impact is likely to come," said Farrar. "The Hospital has had a significant influence on the National and WHO [World Health Organization] guidelines on how to treat malaria and typhoid," he went on, adding that current research may change the way TB meningitis is treated.

The challenge now, he says, is to repay the investment made by the Vietnamese government, the Wellcome Trust, and long-standing support from the Ho Chi Minh City Health Service, by making an impact on diseases important to Viet Nam. "It's a challenge!" he admitted.

Picture caption and credit:
Vietnam with typhoid background. Typhoid image courtesy of CDC/Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Charles N. Farmer.

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Related links on other sites:
The Center for Tropical Medicine
Viet Nam Unit
 

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