To celebrate the 11th anniversary of the RITM-TOHOKU Collaborating Research Center for Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases, project researchers from the Philippines and Japan presented updates on their on-going studies in a conference held on January 28, 2019 at the RITM Auditorium.

“The RITM-TOHOKU partnership has been going on since 2008, and we hope this collaboration would continue to produce more publications, researches, and collaborations,” said Dr. Beatriz Quiambao as she welcomes over a hundred researchers from the different departments of RITM and guests from TOHOKU and the DOH.

The conference featured five epidemiological studies on acute respiratory infections, enterovirus, and adenovirus done in various project sites, including NCR and Region 8.

“The collaboration has enhanced our laboratories and has enabled sharing of technologies, learnings and experiences between scientists in the two countries,” highlighted Dr. Socorro Lupisan,  giving an overview of the partnership’s history. Dr. Lupisan added that the government of Region 8 benefits from the gathered data from various researches done in the region for its policy development and implementation.

Established in April 2008, the RITM-TOHOKU Collaborating Research Center for Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases continue to produce relevant epidemiological analysis of major infectious diseases in the Philippines. It has also strengthened the capacity of the National Reference Laboratories of RITM in the identification of causative agents of infectious tropical diseases in the Philippines.

by JA Quinto, Communication and Engagement Office