One of the key aims of capacity building countries is to develop regional centres of excellence that can themselves transfer skills. A shining example of such a centre is the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh: Centre for Health and Population Research (the ICDDR,B) in Dhaka, which has an international reputation for the quality of its research and training in infectious diseases, nutrition and other important health problems.

One of its most important roles is to transfer skills to clinicians and researchers from other developing nations - not just in Asia but all over the world. Last September, I was fortunate enough to see for myself how valuable this can be.

I was in Dhaka with a colleague to see scientists from developing countries take a course on new laboratory techniques in infectious disease research. The course, which covered subjects from immunology to bioinformatics, was sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), and has involved a remarkable range of nationalities. Participants came from countries as far afield as Malawi, Nepal and Peru, as well as Bangladesh. Course tutors came from Canada, Thailand and elsewhere.

To complement and help publicise the course, we have launched a course-specific website to support staff and participants. We are also developing a 'virtual community' to encourage communication and collaboration among scientists from developing countries, beginning with a listserv due to launch shortly. The Trust is co-funding and a partner with ICDDR,B in the development of the course-specific website, and we are working with the HHMI on the virtual community.

By attending the course we could gauge for ourselves the needs of developing country scientists and gain invaluable feedback for the development of the educational CD-ROMs we produce. It was also an ideal way for us to meet staff, and to enlist them for help and support. We hope someone from the ICDDR,B will be able to come and work with us and learn new skills in CD-ROM production.

Being in Bangladesh meant we could see the impact of infectious disease for ourselves - on trips to slums, the hospital and to ICDDR,B's field station, Matlab. We learned about the ICDDR,B's approach to combating diarrhoeal disease, such as in their Nutritional Rehabilitation Unit - building on its ground-breaking earlier work on oral rehydration salts solution, which has saved millions of lives worldwide. ICDDR,B's involvement in our latest project shows that, despite being one of the poorest countries in the world, Bangladesh can still play a leading role in tackling important medical challenges.

While in Dhaka we also demonstrated our Topics in International Health CD-ROMs - and 50 orders were an unexpected bonus. So, even with monsoon rains, strikes and unbelievable traffic, our trip was extremely rewarding and worthwhile. As well as building valuable relationships, actually seeing the effects of infectious diseases highlighted the importance of research in this area - and the need for training CD-ROMs such as ours.

Julie Reza is in the Wellcome Trust's Publishing Group - International Health, which produces Topics in International Health and other educational CD-ROMs.

See also

• Topics in International Health series of educational materials for medical and life sciences students, their teachers and other healthcare professionals.
  

External links

• Advanced Laboratory Training Course in Infectious Disease Research at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh in conjunction with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.