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Fifth International Course on African Trypanosomoses,
Nairobi, 5–23 October 2009

The Fifth International Training Course on African Trypanosomoses (ICAT5) will be organized and held at the headquarters of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Nairobi, Kenya. This course is part of the training courses developed by the WHO and the Association against Trypanosomiasis in Africa (ATA) to meet the need in human resources to combat the disease in the field. It is a follow-up to the previous courses that took place successively between 2000 and 2006 in Marseille, Lyon, Lisbon and Tunis.

Similarly to preceding courses the objective of this fifth one is to raise interest and provide knowledge in African Trypanosomiasis among doctors, veterinarians, entomologists, scientists and other staff responsible for disease surveillance and control.

The ICAT5 is intensive. It aims at improving the knowledge and skills of staff working in national control programmes or NGOs involved in disease control. Organizers expect to increase the awareness of the younger staff to the obstacle the disease represents for the development of the rural population of Africa through teaching and provide them with the essential knowledge about the disease itself, its epidemiology and treatment. This Fifth Course will consequently constitute another step in Trypanosomiasis training for the new staff involved in surveillance, control and research.

Driving forces behind a growing interest in IVM include the need to overcome challenges experienced with conventional single-intervention approaches to vector control as well as recent opportunities for promoting multi-sectoral approaches to human health.

In consideration of the recent epidemiological evolution of the disease and the important reduction in the number of new cases due to the intensive effort made to control it during the last few years, organizers focalized this training on the most practical aspects of trypanosomiasis surveillance, control and research.

Another important expectation of this course is to establish a link between the new comers in the field of sleeping sickness and those who have worked in this area for many years trying to better understand the disease, find solutions to field problems and improve patient management. Consequently the teaching staff is selected among the most experienced individuals in the different areas of programme implementation ranging from the parasite and the disease, through the vector, to programme administration and management.

This international course seems essential to pass on the present wealth of knowledge, skills and commitment onto a critical mass of young staff in charge of surveillance and control in the endemic countries.

This three-week course delivered in English and in French is demanding and the teaching is intensive. Candidates need to be fluent in one of the two languages and have a very good knowledge of the other in order to follow lectures given in either one or the other language. The minimum level of education required is a medical, veterinary or pharmacy degree or a doctorate in biology or entomology; or other formal, high level educational qualifications that can be applied in field operations.

Applicants are selected from both the North and the South, with priority given to African practitioners and others who are working or will work in the field of Trypanosomoses.

Course cost is US$ 5500 which covers all expenses except the return fare to Nairobi. In this cost is included local transportation, food and board, insurance, registration fee, laboratory practical, training documents and all other local expenses.

For further information, please contact directly the course organizers: