GHENT UNIVERSITY Karoline FONCK - International Centre for ...

WHO Collaborating Center on HIV/AIDS, Nairobi, Kenya
A NNEX
The WHO Collaborating Group at the University of Nairobi has played a major role in STI/HIV
research in Kenya and has resulted in world-renowned data. The group started as a
partnership between the University of Nairobi, the Nairobi City Council, the University of
Manitoba (Winnipeg, Canada), the Institute of Tropical Medicine (Antwerp, Belgium) and the
University of Washington (Seattle, USA). The group has become larger over the years as the
good working environment, the optimal research infrastructures, and the collaborative
atmosphere attracted other universities. During the study period, the group counted in
addition the Oxford University (Oxford, England), the Erasmus University (Rotterdam,
Holland) and the Ghent University (Ghent, Belgium). The Institute of Tropical Medicine was
no longer part of the group.
The shared interest in STI, especially genital ulcer disease (GUD) of the Department Heads
of Medical Microbiology at the University of Nairobi and the University of Manitoba, Herbert
Nsanze and Allan Ronald respectively, created the opportunity that sparked the collaboration
in 1980. Two senior infectious disease fellows, Margaret Fast during 1980 and Frank
Plummer during 1981 began the Nairobi-Manitoba exchange. Laboratory space was
provided at the University of Nairobi, Department of Medical Microbiology. Dr DaCosta
invited the team to begin clinical research in the special Treatment Clinic, a referral clinic for
STI in downtown Nairobi.
In 1981, Dr Peter Piot from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp joined the
partnership. Over the subsequent decade, three Belgian physicians, Lieve Fransen, Marie
Laga and Marleen Temmerman worked in Nairobi, focusing on STI/HIV in reproduction.
Marleen Temmerman, after becoming Professor in obstetrics-gynecology at the Ghent
University, and where she created the International Center for Reproductive Health (ICRH)
continued the collaboration but now out of this institution and this from 1992.
In 1983, the World Health Organization (WHO) formally recognized the research group and
designated it as a WHO Collaborating Center for Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
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