Infectious diseases are the second cause of morbi-mortality in the world and the leading one in developing countries. Furthermore, these diseases, known as tropical diseases and the majority of which are parasitary, are the cause of poverty and underdevelopment in those countries.
World expenditure on health research has increased notably over recent years, up from 30 billion US dollars in 1986 to the current figure of 105.9. The paradox is that 90% of this money is spent on health problems that affect less than 10% of the world’s population (10/90 gap).
The WHO’s Tropical Disease Research Programme (TDR) has catalogued eight priority diseases neglected by the pharmaceutical industry, which therefore does not invest in their research: malaria, trypanosomiasis (African or Sleeping Sickness and American or Chagas Disease), schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, lymphatic filariasis, leprosy and – since 2000- tuberculosis and dengue.
The initiative to develop a Tropical Disease Cooperative Research (RICET) emerged in keeping with this line in 2002. It seeks to research these pathologies, traditionally linked to low-income countries and which have also begun to be present in the Spanish National Health System (SNS) as a result of increased international mobility.
RICET has managed to bring together outstanding researchers specialised in Tropical Medicine and Neglected or Forgotten Diseases. RICET’s main objective is to support the SNS in the diagnostics, treatment and control of neglected and tropical diseases, by means of research and training.Synergies are thus fostered between the different research groups, by facilitating the use of shared resources and associated staff, which provides an added value to the research.
The RICEToperates by means of:
- a cooperative research project between the different Groups and Centres that comprise the Strategic Plan or Network divided into Programmes,
- an infrastructure network to share the required research resources,
- an Animal Experimentation Platform and
- Research Centres in low-income tropical countries, set up by RICET research groups and their international associates.
The specific objectives of the RICET Research Programme include improving diagnostics, looking for new therapeutic formulae both at a pharmaceutical-chemical level and when developing new vaccines and immunotherapies, studying and recommending control measures, and furthering the study of the relationships between the etiological agent of the disease, host and, where applicable, the vectors that transmit them.
The established basic research lines are:
- Diagnostics, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
- Host-parasite interactions and Pathophysiology
- Studies on vectors and reservoirs
- Therapeutic/Resistance (use of genomics, proteomics, pharma-genomics and pharma-proteomics)
- Vaccines and Immunotherapy
- Control.
IX Curso de Diagnóstico Molecular de Enfermedades Tropicales
Un año más tendrá lugar en Madrid, del 30 de mayo al 10 de junio, este curso tiene como principal objetivo aportar un conocimiento detallado de las técnicas moleculares y su aplicación al diagnóstico de las enfermedades tropicales de mayor repercusión en Salud Pública.
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Reunión del Programa de Tripanosomiasis africana
El pasado 22 de marzo se reunió en Madrid, en el Centro Nacional de Medicina Tropical, el programa de Enfermedad del Sueño dónde se discutió los avances de las investigaciones colaborativas y se diseñó la nueva estrategia a seguir.
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Curso de Nutrición Infantil en los Trópicos
El curso de Nutrición Infantil en los Trópicos tiene como principal objetivo estudiar las relaciones entre estado nutricional y enfermedad en países tropicales y proporcionar
las herramientas necesarias para poder evaluar la situación nutricional y planificar intervenciones nutricionales en la población infantil de estos países.
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Investigadora de la RICET gana el primer premio a la Calidad en la Investigación sobre Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo Humano
La investigadora de la RICET, Estefanía Custodio Cerezales, del Centro Nacional de Medicina Tropical-ISCIII, ha ganado el primer premio en el apartado de Ciencias de la Salud con su tesis "Estado nutricional de la población infantil de Guinea Ecuatorial y su relación con el paludismo".
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Boletín de Enfermedades Emergentes 06/11
Vuelve el cólera a Haití. Desde principios de mayo de este año se ha constatado un nuevo aumento en el número de casos de cólera debido en parte a la escasez de agua potable y medidas sanitarias, junto con la llegada de la época de lluvias e inundaciones.
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Investigadora de la RICET invitada al encuentro Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates
La Confederación de Sociedades Científicas de España, COSCE, ha seleccionado a la joven científica Carolina Hurtado Marcos, socia de la Sociedad Española de Medicina Tropical y Salud Internacional, SEMTSI, para participar en el encuentro Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates, que se celebrará en Alemania, entre el 26 de junio y el 1 de julio del 2011.
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