Renowned International Division Adds New Locale to its Roster: Tanzania
The Division of International Medicine and Infectious Diseases is renowned for facing some of the most virulent infectious diseases existing around the world. Division Chief, Dr. Warren D. Johnson, Jr., the B. H. Kean Professor of Tropical Medicine, works domestically here in the Department of Medicine at NewYork-Cornell, as well as abroad with co-investigators in many different fields, including HIV-AIDS, leishmaniasis, tuberculosis, malaria, and cryptosporidiosis. The Division has made important strides in many areas, and in particular, with HIV-AIDS. Currently, he is working in Tanzania, the latest locale added to the Division's international roster.
Tanzania: A New Beginning
In early 2006, the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University, led in part by Sanford Weill (Chairman, Weill Cornell's Board of Overseers) and the TOUCH Foundation, Father Peter Le Jacq, M.D. (Maryknoll Brothers and Sisters), and Dr. Estomih Mtui (Associate Professor of Clinical Anatomy in Neurology and Neuroscience), established an affiliation with the Bugando Medical Center (BMC) and the Bugando University College of Health Sciences (BUCHS) in Mwanza, Tanzania. The objective is to train health care professionals (physicians, nurses, technicians and other staff) to work in Tanzania and to create the best medical school in East Africa. In September, 2006, First Lady Salma Kikwete, wife of Tanzanian President Jakay Kikwete, visited Weill Cornell to discuss the Bugando affiliation and our existing HIV/AIDS programs. During January - June 2007, senior residents and postdoctoral fellows began their work teaching and training in Bugando.