Summary of research works on viruses in the Vietnam Research Station, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University

Abstract

Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University (NEKKEN) and National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Vietnam (NIHE) jointly conducted a project from 2006 on Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases (ERID) granted by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Technology (MEXT) of Japan. Fifteen independent researches have been carried out by 7 scientists who stationed in the Vietnam Research Station (VRS), and by approximately 60 visiting scientists. A wide variety of viruses have been studied in the research activities in the VRS, of those, topics of'' Nipah virus infection in bats in Vietnam'', ''Nam Dinh virus, a newly discovered insect nidovirus'', and'' Risk factors of dengue fever in southern Vietnam'' were summarized. It is important to develop a mechanism to facilitate young scientists to use the VRS in their research works, and then a scope to establish the VRS as a gateway to a successful career path for young scientists in the field of the infectious diseases would be realized.