On last 5 May died in this capital, the well-known researcher and Doctor in Sciences, Professor Gustavo Kourí Flores, who until a few days before his death had been the Director General of this institution since 1979.
To pay homage to his memory, the Organizing Committee of the 12th International Dengue Course, to be held at IPK from 8 to 19 August this year, has decided to called this course “Professor Gustavo Kourí in Memoriam”.
Proffessors and collaborators from many institutions and organizations belonging to the world investigations vanguard related to dengue fever are credits to our course. Among them, we can mention Luiz Jacintho Da Silva, Mabel Carabaldi (Dengue Vaccine Initiative); Carlos Espinal, Fernando Noriega,Laurant Coudeville, Germano Ferreira (Sanofi Pasteur); Axel Kroeger, Derek Cummings, Olaf Horstick (TDR/WHO); Joachim Hombach, Raman Velayudhan (WHO); David Severson (Notredame University); Linda Lloyd, Ramon Martinez, Jose L. San Martin, Romeu Montoya, Olivia Brathwaite (PAHO); Delia Enria (J. A. Maiztegui Institute);Siew Pheng, Julien Lescar (Novartis Institute Tropical Diseases); Ronaldo da Silva Mohana Borges (Carlos Chagas Filho Biophysics Institute); Audrey Lenhart (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine); Veerle Vanlerberghe, Patrick Van der Stuyft (Belgica epidemiology and disease control unit, public health department); Amy Morrison (Davis University, California); Jorge Osorio(Wisconsin University); Araceli Castro(Harvard University); Gavin Screaton (Imperial Collegue); Rosanna Peeling (London School); Frederic Tangy (Pasteur Institute); Kenji Hirayama (Nagasaki University); Scott Halstead (PDVI); Chanditha Hapurachchi (Environmental Health Institute, Singapur);Paul Young (Queensland University, Brisbane, Australia) and Eva Harris (Berkeley University).
Until this moment there are many important professors and investigators in the matter that have confirmed their participation in our course. Among them: Ángel M Álvarez, Mayling Álvarez, Alberto Baly, Juan Bisset, Juan V. Cangas, Virginia Capó, Osvaldo Castro, Miriam Concepción Rojas, Omar Fuentes, Gisel García, María G. Guzmán, Ana M. Ibarra, Eric Martínez, Otto Peláez, Ana B. Pérez, Maritza Pupo, Magdalena Rodríguez, Rosmari Rodríguez-Roche, Delfina Rosario, Liset Sánchez, Beatriz Sierra, María E. Toledo, Susana Vázquez, all of them from prestigious institutions of our country.
A global pandemic of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne viral disease, started during World War II, intensifying during the 70’s. Since then, the prevalence of dengue fever as well as the life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome (DHF/DSS) has increased exponentially, with approximately 2.5 billion people at risk, about 50 million cases and 250-500 000 severe cases occur annually. At present, dengue is reported in Southeast Asia, the Western Pacific, and in the American and the Mediterranean regions. In the last years, an increased number of epidemics are being reported in Africa.
In this context, the PAHO/WHO Collaborating Center for the Study of Dengue and its Vector of the ‘Pedro Kourí’’ Tropical Medicine Institute (IPK), Havana, Cuba, together with the Cuban Ministry of Public Health, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the WHO Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) organize, since 1987, their biannual International Dengue Course.
This 12th edition of the Course, covering 24 years (1987-2011) of work, will allow to strengthening capacities in dengue control and prevention, taking into account the most current and advanced knowledge and experiences.
