OUR MISSION

To develop a balanced, transdisciplinary research program that focuses on basic, translational, and field research on microbial diseases of public health importance in the Asia-Pacific region.

Collectively, past and current research and training programs in tropical medicine, public health, microbiology and immunology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa provide a unique platform on which to build a world-class institute for tropical medicine and infectious diseases that focuses specifically on the Asia-Pacific region. Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases (APITMID), will work to meet the growing challenge of understanding, preventing and controlling the dramatic global re-emergence of infectious diseases in the Asia-Pacific region.

During the past 25 years, infectious diseases have once again regained their position as the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The developing countries of the tropical Asia-Pacific region have been among those geographic areas hardest hit by this resurgence. Thus, infectious diseases are among the most important public health and economic problems facing the Asian-Pacific region at the beginning of the new millennium. In particular, “old diseases”, such as dengue/dengue hemorrhagic fever, epidemic polyarthritis, Japanese encephalitis, malaria, cholera, tuberculosis, plague and influenza, have repeatedly caused major epidemics in the region, and have severely taxed the public health infrastructure and the economies in many of these countries. In addition, the emergence of newly recognized pathogens such as human immunodeficiency virus, Nipah virus, Hendra virus, SARS corona virus and avian influenza virus, all of which are zoonotic viruses that have “jumped species”, have caused major epidemics in recent years that have resulted in significant loss of human lives and devastating economic consequences worldwide.

The myriad factors responsible for this alarming global re-emergence of infectious diseases are not fully understood, but it is clear that global demographic and societal changes have been primarily contributory. The unprecedented population growth since World War II has been one of the principal driving forces behind the uncontrolled urbanization and human migration patterns. This, combined with the rapid and massive movement of people, animals (with their endo-and ecto-parasites) and commodities via jet air travel and other modes of modern transportation, along with the insidious breakdown of the public health infrastructure to deal with infectious diseases, and the long-held emphasis on curative rather than preventive medicine, have all contributed to the resurgence of infectious diseases.

All of the global public health emergencies in the past 10 years, have originated in Asia, i.e., plague in India, 1994; Hong Kong Flu, 1997; Nipah encephalitis, 1999; SARS, 2003; and avian influenza, 2004. This trend makes it imperative that programs be established to monitor infectious diseases in this region using the most modern laboratory and epidemiologic technology. By virtue of its strategic geographic location as the gateway to/from Asia and the Pacific Islands, and its strong ties to resource-poor developing countries in that region, the University of Hawaii at Manoa is in a position to rapidly develop the capacity to fill this niche. That is, the University of Hawaii at Manoa has a long history of training students and public health officers from Asia and the Pacific in medicine and public health; many of these former graduates are now in high-level administrative positions in ministries of health and/or in upper level professorial positions at universities throughout Asia. In addition, the University of Hawaii at Manoa has close cultural ties to Asia and the Pacific, and over the years, has developed close working relationships and strong partnerships based on mutual trust, with institutions in the region. Finally, the East-West Center provides an expanded dimension to these ties with Asia.