The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and Tohoku University Collaborating Research Center for Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases celebrated 10 years of partnership through a conference on 20 February 2018 at the RITM Training Center.

The anniversary conference is the culmination of a decade of research partnership led by research group head, Dr. Hitoshi Oshitani and RITM Director, Dr. Socorro Lupisan. The event featured the collaborating center’s achievements through the decade and presented discussions about the future direction of collaborative research.

Dr. Lupisan gave the keynote lecture on childhood pneumonia in the Philippines, citing the improvement in the treatment, control, and decrease in mortality of pneumonia cases over the years. She said that this improvement is the result of the development of better strategies in addressing pneumonia through improved investigations of the cause for the disease.

Sixteen (16) researchers from RITM and Tohoku University presented their studies during the sessions of the event. The sessions featured discussions on respiratory infections, bacterial infections, acute gastroenteritis, other infections such as rabies, dengue, and chikungunya, and a session on ongoing research projects under the collaboration program.

A poster exhibit was also held to showcase abstracts of RITM-Tohoku researchers over the years.

The RITM-Tohoku Collaborating Research Center for Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases was launched in 2008 to establish sustainable infectious disease control programs in the country through research with local hospitals and institutions.

The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine is a distinguished partner institution of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development in infectious diseases research.  The Council has supported RITM projects on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and infectious disease, among others, throughout the years.