2016 marked the 12th consecutive year that VACFA has conducted the Annual African Vaccinology Course (AAVC). So far and cumulatively, participants from most African countries have attended the course with the exception of Cape Verde, Djibouti, Morocco, Seychelles and Western Sahara.
Convened by Prof. Gregory Hussey (Director, VACFA), Dr. Benjamin Kagina (Research officer, VACFA and Dr. Rudzani Muloiwa (General Paediatrics, GSH and VACFA), 50 attendees from 23 African countries participated during the 2016 vaccinology course. A diverse pool of 33 local and international faculty members presented at the course.
The aims of the 12th AAVC in 2016 were:
Provide participants with essential expertise to support national immunization programmes
Broaden the understanding of the challenges and opportunities in vaccinology at regional and global levels
Build sustainable research capacity for vaccine development and conducting high quality phase 1-lV vaccine trials in Africa
Foster communication and networking among African vaccinologists
The faculty members, consisting of experts from diverse background such as clinical medicine, operational sciences, epidemiology, immunology, vaccinology and media presented at the course. The faculty members were from both academia and industry sectors.
There were many highlights during the 2016 vaccinology course including several networking opportunities. Impressively, some new collaborative vaccines research activities were discussed. There were many more highlights from the talks presented at the course as well as from questions asked by the participants.
The participants, representing the four regions (North, South, East and West) of Africa were from 23 different African countries. These participants represented diverse educational and career backgrounds required for various roles in the field of vaccinology. All participants, except from the sponsoring partners were fully funded to participate in the course through grants obtained by VACFA.