Perspectives in Health Magazine
The Magazine of the Pan American Health Organization
Volume 8, Number 2, 2003

International ties
The Kourí Institute has developed research and educational exchange ties with a number of academic institutions in the United States, including Cornell, Harvard, North Carolina, Princeton and Yale universities. The most significant of these is with the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard. Since the center's inception in 1994, one of its priorities has been to reestablish and expand ties with Cuban scholars and institutions. Through its Cuba Program, the center has fostered collaboration between Cuban counterpart institutions and the Harvard Medical School, the Harvard School of Public Health, the John F. Kennedy School of Government and even the Graduate School of Design.

Harvard Medical School had strong ties to the Kourí Institute even before the revolution. That relationship dissipated following Castro's rise to power and the institute's decline. But in 1998, John David, professor emeritus of tropical medicine in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard School of Public Health, wrote to Gustavo Kourí suggesting ways of strengthening research ties between the two institutions. Kourí replied with an invitation.

David adds: "Our relationships have been quite separate from dissidents. The autocracy has not affected our relationships."

The Kourí Institute has even developed relationships within U.S. government circles. Gary Clark, chief of the Dengue Branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has known Kourí for more than a decade and participates in IPK courses on dengue fever. He notes that such collaborative ventures are important to researchers in Cuba and the United States, as well as other countries.

"It's an opportunity to meet people with the same interests," says Clark. "Through Dr. Kourí's leadership and the course—currently coming up on the eighth one—we have 14 to 16 years of efforts to bring researchers together. About 50, 75 people come [to] do special laboratories... It's an opportunity to meet people with the same interests."

Harvard's Farmer observes that much more than "pure research" is at stake in these collaborations: "The IPK has singled out a number of ranking infectious threats, including TB, dengue, malaria and HIV. Comparatively speaking, these are not ranking threats within Cuba. But these diseases constitute huge problems for the poor world." There is no effective vaccine for any of them, and they are the leading infectious diseases in the world today, he says.

Kourí also views his mission in these larger terms. "Considering the risk of introduction of exotic diseases in Cuba, our government decided to strengthen the institute and increase our surveillance. But at the same time, our president declared that this center was not only for Cuba, but also for humanity."

For Farmer, IPK represents an opportunity not to be missed.

"Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health may well constitute the world's largest universitybased medical research complex," he explains. "If we were to join forces with one of the developing world's premier research institutions to develop new tools to control or treat these plagues, it would be, as Shakespeare put it, ‘a consummation devoutly to be wish'd.'"

Annmarie Christensen is director of publications at the Global Health Council in Vermont,USA. She reported this story while visiting Cuba for the council in April.

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