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Advancing Science for Global Health
Advancing Science for Global Health
Home > Global Health Matters Jul/Aug 2010 > Fogarty awards $7M to combat chronic diseases Print

Fogarty awards $7M to combat chronic diseases

July / August 2010 | Volume 9, Issue 4

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Fogarty's new chronic disease research awards will
aid developing countries, which are seeing a growing
epidemic of diabetes, heart disease and other
conditions due to lifestyle changes and other causes.

Fogarty is continuing efforts to tackle the growing epidemic of chronic diseases in the developing world, awarding seven new grants totaling about $6.8 million over five years to support research training in cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and other noncommunicable conditions.

Now accounting for 60 percent of all deaths worldwide, chronic diseases are becoming increasingly prevalent in the developing world, according to the WHO. Populations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are increasingly undergoing lifestyle changes as a result of economic and cultural transitions.

Four of the new Fogarty grants are being awarded to U.S. institutions for research training in China, Guatemala, Mongolia and Romania. Two are being issued directly to sites in South Africa and Pakistan, and the remaining award will fund a research training network in Asia.

Fogarty's new Noncommunicable Chronic Diseases Research Training Program awards include:

  • Aga Khan University in Pakistan will launch a clinical training program focused on stroke research. No such formal training or research programs currently exist in Pakistan, where the projected increase in death and illness from stroke is expected to be high.

  • Duke University will establish a stroke prevention and treatment training project in China, where stroke is a major cause of death and adult disability.

  • Johns Hopkins University will implement a training program centered on environmental risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease in Mongolia, which is experiencing rapid development of mineral and fossil fuel resources.

  • Monash University, based in Melbourne, Australia, will create a regional research training network to address cardiovascular disease and diabetes in India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

  • The University of Pennsylvania will develop a chronic disease epidemiology training program for clinicians and researchers in Guatemala.

  • The University of Iowa award will support the training of Romanian researchers in the prevention and management of obesity, cancer, lung disease and other non-communicable conditions.

  • The Wits Health Consortium, part of the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, will develop an interdisciplinary educational program with an emphasis on cardiovascular disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes.

NIH funding partners for the awards include the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).

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