International Programs

The Division of Infectious Diseases collaborates closely with the Weill Cornell Center for Global Health (CGH), with nine faculty members shared between the two groups, including full-time faculty who live on-site or travel frequently to programs in Brazil, Haiti, India, and Tanzania.

Brazil

Carvalho, Dupnik, Glesby, Johnson

Weill Cornell Medicine Infectious Diseases Brazil

The collaboration between Cornell University and the Federal University of Bahia started in 1964 and is the longest collaboration of its type in the world. To date, over 20 Cornell faculty members and approximately 120 students and fellows have participated in the program, and over 250 peer reviewed journal publications have emerged from the research. The program has been funded by the Commonwealth Fund and the Rockefeller Foundation, and since 1979, by the NIH. A second program collaborates with the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) in Natal. Active areas of research include the pathogenesis, diagnosis, complications, and management of HTLV-1, leprosy, and leishmaniasis.

 Page B, Lago A, Silva JA, Schriefer A, Lago J, Oliveira L, Guimarães LH, Glesby M, Carvalho EM. Influence of Intestinal Helminth Burden on Clinical Manifestations, Therapeutic Response, and Leishmania braziliensis Load in Patients with New World Cutaneous Leishmaniasis. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2021 Aug 16;105(4):1060-1066.

Nobre ML, Dupnik KM, Nobre PJ, Freitas De Souza MC, Dűppre NC, Sarno EN, Jerŏnimo SM. Human migration, railways and the geographic distribution of leprosy in Rio Grande do Norte State--Brazil. Lepr Rev. 2015 Dec;86(4):335-44.

Amorim FM, Nobre ML, Nascimento LS, Miranda AM, Monteiro GRG, Freire-Neto FP, Queiroz MDCP, Queiroz JW, Duthie MS, Costa MR, Reed SG, Johnson WD Jr, Dupnik KM, Jeronimo SMB. Differential immunoglobulin and complement levels in leprosy prior to development of reversal reaction and erythema nodosum leprosum. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2019 Jan 28;13(1):e0007089.

Haiti

Fitzgerald, Dupnik, Johnson, Mathad, Ocheretina, Pape, Schackman

Weill Cornell Medicine Infectious Diseases Haiti

The Cornell program in Haiti began in 1980 with the establishment of a unit for the study and treatment of infantile diarrhea at the State University Hospital in Port-au-Prince. The Cornell team began its AIDS research in 1982 and was instrumental in the formation of Groupe Haitien d’Etude du Sarcome de Kaposi et des Infections Opportunistes (GHESKIO). Since 1983, Cornell and GHESKIO have had uninterrupted NIH support resulting in over 130 publications. Cornell-GHESKIO conducts NIH-sponsored HIV and tuberculosis clinical trials. With support from the U.S. President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), GHESKIO provides services to approximately 500,000 persons annually. Current areas of research are HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, cholera, and non-communicable disease.

Dupnik KM, Bean JM, Lee MH, Jean Juste MA, Skrabanek L, Rivera V, Vorkas CK, Pape JW, Fitzgerald DW, Glickman M. Blood transcriptomic markers of Mycobacterium tuberculosis load in sputum. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2018 Aug 1;22(8):950-958.

Batavia AS, Severe P, Lee MH, Apollon A, Zhu YS, Dupnik KM, McNairy ML, Pape JW, Fitzgerald DW, Peck RN. Blood pressure and mortality in a prospective cohort of HIV-infected adults in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. J Hypertens. 2018 Jul;36(7):1533-1539.

Ocheretina O, Shen L, Escuyer VE, Mabou MM, Royal-Mardi G, Collins SE, Pape JW, Fitzgerald DW. Whole Genome Sequencing Investigation of a Tuberculosis Outbreak in Port-au-Prince, Haiti Caused by a Strain with a "Low-Level" rpoB Mutation L511P - Insights into a Mechanism of Resistance Escalation. PLoS One. 2015 Jun 3;10(6):e0129207.

Masur J, Koenig SP, Julma P, Ocheretina O, Durán-Mendicuti MA, Fitzgerald DW, Pape JW. Active Tuberculosis Case Finding in Haiti. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2017 Aug;97(2):433-435.

Pierre S, Jannat-Khah D, Fitzgerald DW, Pape J, McNairy ML. 10-Year Survival of Patients with AIDS Receiving Antiretroviral Therapy in Haiti. N Engl J Med. 2016 Jan 28;374(4):397-8.

Isa F, Collins S, Lee MH, Decome D, Dorvil N, Joseph P, Smith L, Salerno S, Wells MT, Fischer S, Bean JM, Pape JW, Johnson WD, Fitzgerald DW, Rhee KY. Mass Spectrometric Identification of Urinary Biomarkers of Pulmonary Tuberculosis. EBioMedicine. 2018 May;31:157-165.

Tanzania

Downs, Fitzgerald, Johnson, Peck, Pham

Weill Cornell Medicine Infectious Diseases Tanzania

In 2006, a formal affiliation was established between WCMC and the Weill Bugando School of Medicine (WBSM) / Bugando Medical Center (BMC) in Mwanza, Tanzania. BMC is a 900-bed tertiary care center serving a population of approximately 15 million Tanzanians. WBSM admits approximately 250 medical students per class, per year. The goal of the Weill Cornell collaboration is to aid in the development of the WBSM/BMC infrastructure and training programs by the exchange of faculty, fellows, residents and students. Long-term goals are to create a platform for self-sustaining research programs and clinical knowledge transfer. WCMC rotates approximately 40 senior teaching residents and fellows in medicine, pediatrics, surgery, and obstetrics and gynecology to Tanzania and brings 10 Tanzanian physicians to New York for clinical and research training. Active areas of research are HIV/AIDS, schistosomiasis, sexually transmitted infections, tuberculosis, and non-communicable diseases, such as hypertension.

Downs JA, Mwakisole AH, Chandika AB, Lugoba S, Kassim R, Laizer E, Magambo KA, Lee MH, Kalluvya SE, Downs DJ, Fitzgerald DW. Educating religious leaders to promote uptake of male circumcision in Tanzania: a cluster randomised trial. Lancet. 2017 Mar 18;389(10074):1124-1132.

Pham K, Mtalitinya G, Aristide C, Airewele EA, Nyakaru DK, McMahon P, Mulaki GM, Corstjens PLAM, de Dood C, van Dam GJ, Changalucha J, Mazigo HD, Lee M, Jaka HM*, Downs JA*. Effects of Schistosoma mansoni and praziquantel treatment on the lower gastrointestinal mucosa: an intensive cohort study in Tanzania. Acta Tropica 2023 Feb; 238:106752. *contributed equally

Dupnik K, Lee M, Mishra P, Reust MJ, Colombe S, Haider SR, Yao B, Vick K, Zhang T, Xiang J, Miyaye D, Magawa R, Lyimo E, Mukerebe C, Mngara J, Kalluvya SE, de Dood CJ, van Dam GJ, Corstjens PLAM, Downs JA. Altered cervical mucosal gene expression and lower IL-15 levels in women with S. haematobium but not S. mansoni infection. J Infect Dis 2019 May 5;219(11):1777-1785.

Kavishe BB, PrayGod G, Brage S, Kitilya BW, Faurholt-Jepsen D, Todd J, Jeremiah K, Filteau S, Olsen MF, Peck R. Changes in nocturnal heart rate variability in people living with HIV during the first year of antiretroviral therapy compared to HIV-uninfected community controls. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2023 Mar 23