Case Study: NAMRU-6 Infectious Disease Research in Peru

 

 

Problem Overview:

Hosted by the ​Peruvian Navy and co-located at their flagship hospital in Lima, at the Naval Hospital in Iquitos, and in Puerto Maldonado; the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit-6 Perú (NAMRU-6) is conducting research and surveillance on a wide range of infectious diseases that are of military or public health significance in the region, including Malaria and Dengue Fever, Yellow Fever, Viral Encephalitis, Leishmaniasis, Chagas’ Disease, and enteric diseases such as Shigellosis and Typhoid Fever. 

NAMRU-6 partners with the ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Peruvian Ministries of Defense and Health work closely with prestigious universities like Cayetano-Heredia and San Marcos. NAMRU-6, also, enjoys a close and productive relationship with Ministries of Defense and Health, universities, and NGO’s throughout Latin America as well as with USAID, U.S. CDC, U.S. NIH, PAHO, and a number of U.S. universities. These partnerships yield a robust research agenda that includes work in prevention strategies, clinical management trials, immune and molecular rapid diagnostics, epidemiology, and ecology as well as projects measuring the social and economic impact of the disease.​​

Program Activity: 

Vysnova has recruited highly trained professionals with years of experience in their field, in addition to having the support of different local institutions. The activities began on April 13th, 2020, and are ongoing. Vysnova’s major role is project management, logistical support, and recruitment for the goals of N6 departments. 

Program Outcomes:

Nine departments of NAMRU-6 are producing, updating, and maintaining their protocols while two departments are working with the identification of human subjects in the Influenza Cohort Study and Development of long-term dengue cohort studies in differentially exposed populations of Peru.

Animal samples were processed for the diagnosis of Avian Influenza, by means of the viral isolation process by inoculation in embryonated eggs and bioinformatic analysis of genomic sequences was performed.