Scientific Research Services in Colombia

The Protocol entitled “Characterization of the infectious causes of acute febrile and exanthematous illness in Latin America” is being performed by NAMRU SOUTH in collaboration with a number of Ministries of Health and institutions in the Americas. Colombia is a key country in South America having access to the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and has a strategic location in the USSOUTHCOM region as the transition between South and Central America. In Colombia, the Laboratory of the Doctorate in Tropical Medicine from the University of Cartagena, belonging to the network of the State University System (SUE in Spanish) of the Colombian Caribbean and the research group UNIMOL (Unidad de Investigación Molecular). This research group has participated as an active collaborator since 2012 and demonstrated over these last 13 years to have the appropriate financial, human, and technical resources, experience, and organizational controls needed to accomplish all deliverables set forth in this protocol. The mapping of important pathogens in the Colombian Caribbean region, where Colombian military contingents often deploy in close cooperation with the United States, makes this collaboration between NAMRU SOUTH and Cartagena University essential. During the years of collaboration, Universidad de Cartagena has built an infrastructure of medical doctors and other field personnel, who have earned the trust and confidence of the local people and made the study possible. It is vital for the study that this network of trust be maintained, and it will not be possible if the collaborating institution were changed.