13th AAVC

13th Annual African Vaccinology Course: 13-17 November 2017

2017 marked the 13th consecutive year that VACFA has conducted the Annual African Vaccinology Course (AAVC). The course was a huge success: in total, there were 75 participants from 26 African countries. We received a very positive feedback from the participants.

The course was convened by Prof. Gregory Hussey, Dr. Benjamin Kagina and Dr. Rudzani Muloiwa. A diverse pool of 32 local and international faculty members presented at the course. The faculty members were from academic institutions, not for profit organizations and pharma companies.

The aims of the 13th AAVC in 2017 were:

1. Provide participants with essential expertise to support national immunization programmes
2. Broaden the understanding of the challenges and opportunities in vaccinology at regional and global levels
3. Build sustainable research capacity for vaccine development and conducting high quality phase 1-lV vaccine trials in Africa
4. Foster communication and networking among African vaccinologists
5. Discuss the roles and challenges of the National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups (NITAGs) in the strengthening of the immunization programmes in Africa

There were many highlights during the 2017 vaccinology course including several networking opportunities. Impressively, some new collaborative vaccines research activities were discussed particularly on the support to NITAGs. Participants were also very happy with the online pre-course reading that was aimed at priming the participants with basic vaccinology knowledge prior the 5-day face to face training. The online pre-course reading was a partnership between VACFA and Immunopaedia.

All participants, except from the sponsoring partners were fully funded to participate in the course through grants obtained by VACFA from the following: GSK, Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur and the University of Cape Town (UCT).

Page created on 22 March 2017

Page last updated on 21 February 2018