Educational Activities
The center’s educational activities are in the form of workshops, implementation of educational courses and internships and apprenticeship courses, guidance and advice for students’ theses and holding journal clubs.
Workshops
In 2013 three workshops and in 2014 one workshop for managers and experts from the country’s various provinces was held in this center. In the end, 110 persons from medical universities successfully completed the training programs.
From 2011 to 2014 a total of 75 students from the Universities of Medical Sciences of Mashhad, Tehran, Hamadan and Pasteur Institute of Iran completed the necessary educational programs in the form of workshops or apprenticeship programs.
National workshop on field epidemiology of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases
The workshop was held from 26-30 May 2013 with participants from the University of Medical and Veterinary Offices of Tabriz, Urmia, Hamadan, Bandar Abbas, Zabol, Ardabil and Kermanshah. Issues such as the epidemiology of zoonosis of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases in the world and in Iran, pathology, laboratory diagnostics, biosafety, biosecurity, disease reservoirs, rodentology, emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, designing field studies, sample transfer, reporting and documentation in theatrical form and in desert operations, trapping, identifying and sampling rodents, isolation and identification of carriers and an introduction to diagnostic laboratory tests (ELISA, rapid test, culture and injection into laboratory animals)were taught in practice.
National Workshop on estimating the Burden of Influenza
An introductory workshop on estimating the burden of influenza was held reviewing the performance of medical universities regarding influenza from 28 September to 1 October 2013 in the presence of disease managers and representatives of the30 Universities of Medical Sciences in the country at the Research Center of Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases of Pasteur Institute of Iran.
The 2-day workshop was held in two groups, participants got familiar with the concept of the burden of disease and their calculations. This workshop was held on the advice of the World Health Organization (EMRO region) using guidelines for measuring the burden of severe respiratory disease syndrome and the disease burden of seasonal influenza in a population. The World Health Organization publication was translated into Persian by the teachers and was discussed during the course.
Representatives of the universities of Medical Sciences of Tehran, Iran, Shahid Beheshti, Hamadan, Dezful, Lorestan, Ahvaz, Bojnord, Yasuj, Qazvin, Kurdistan, Alborz, Kerman, West Azerbaijan, Mazandaran, Isfahan, Birjand, Zabol, Yazd, Hormozgan, Tabriz, Zanjan, Qom, Golestan, Bushehr, Zahedan, Shiraz, Babol, Arak, Ardabil and representatives of Pasteur Institute of Iran participated in the course.
National workshop on pre-hospital emergency services force are of acute respiratory diseases
A 4-day workshop on "the role of pre-hospital emergency services (EMS) for care of acute respiratory diseases” for personnel of guiding operation centers (DISPATCH) and the emergency unitfrom2-5 December 2013 was held with representatives from30 universities of medical sciences and from the Research Center of Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases of Pasteur Institute of Iran.
In this workshop, participants were acquainted with the concepts of international health care and topics such as disinfection of ambulances and medical equipment after use for patients with acute respiratory disease, the role of pre-hospital care in the implementation of syndrome surveillance, border health care centers and the treatment and management of patients with acute respiratory disease were introduced.
This workshop was held in two groups of 25 people and each for two days. Representatives of the universities of Medical Sciences of Tehran, Zahedan, Kermanshah, Hamadan, Ahvaz, Dezful, Ardebil, Arak, West Azerbaijan, Kerman, Gonabad, Shahrekord, Kashan, Yasuj, Isfahan, Mashhad, Alborz, Sari, Shahroud, Mashhad, Iran, Shiraz and Lorestan, North Khorasan, Qazvin, Qom, Babol, Yazd, Zanjan, Tabriz, and Gorgan as well as from Pasteur Institute of Iran participated in the course.
National workshop on plague field epidemiology
National workshops on field epidemiology of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases (with emphasis on the plague) was held from 9-13 August 2014 with participants from the universities of Medical Sciences of Tehran, Iran, Zahedan, Hamadan, Gilan, Birjand, Zanjan, Mazandaran, Ahvaz, Qazvin and Dezful and in cooperation with the group of rodentology from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and the management of the Center for Communicable Diseases Control of the Research Center for Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases at Pasteur Institute of Iran.
The purpose of this course was to make participants familiar with issues such as plague disease, rodentology, entomology, bacteriology, epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment of plague.
Apprenticeships and internship
A standard program is developed for students to successfully complete different apprenticeship courses in related fields at this center.
Figure 42: Students of Medical Entomology and Vector Control of the University of Medical Sciences that completed their practical entomology course at the center, spring 2011.
As one of Pasteur Institute of Iran's strategy plan is the development of field activities in the area of infectious diseases, the visiting program for students in various subfields (bacteriology, biotechnology and genetics) is placed in the education programs of the institute and to this end, periodic visits to the Research Center for Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases are carried out. The visitor’s program is in scientific and cultural camps. Students are apprised of the current research activities in this center by help of the professors who have experience in the field epidemiology.
Figure 43: Visit by the students of Pasteur Institute of Iran to the center’s field activity, November 2014.
Student thesis
With the official restart of this center in2013, two master's theses which focused on the center were defined and adopted and are currently in progress:
• Investigation of rodent fauna, ectoparasites and endoparasites in western and southwestern areas of Kurdistan,
• Comparing the genetic structure of rodents (with emphasis on Meriones Persicus) and assess their flea infestation Yersinia pestis in two areas(with history and with no history of plague) in Iran