Mission and Demographics
The mission of the International Tuberculosis Center (ITC) is to conduct research and promote educational initiatives to combat the spread of tuberculosis (TB) in Alabama and globally.

Center Research
In addition to the Center's primary mission to provide assistance in the design, implementation and evaluation of innovative programs to combat TB, it also maintains a strong commitment to TB education and training. Through the Gorgas Tuberculosis Initiative, the ITC emphasizes training, education, and operations research utilizing staff expertise in both medicine and public health to improve program performance in countries with a high disease burden (such as Zambia, Honduras, Peru, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, and Cambodia). These projects involve a spectrum of foreign stakeholders, including academia and non-governmental organizations, and wide range of research activities on a number of subjects such as multi-drug resistant TB, TB-HIV co-infection, TB screening of HIV-infected patients, TB control in prisons, and public-private mix. These activities are funded with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), PEPFAR and the UAB Center for AIDS Research.

Domestically, ITC staff is working in tandem with the Alabama Department of Public Health and the CDC to conduct epidemiological research focused on foreign-born TB in Alabama. Past research has focused on TB among the homeless, the molecular epidemiology of transmission, enhancing the effectiveness of contact investigation, and the issue of preventable childhood TB, resulting in publications in peer-reviewed journals and elsewhere.

Capacity Development
In addition to providing technical assistance to specific field projects, the ITC, primarily through the Gorgas Tuberculosis Initiative, works to develop human resources for international TB control. This is done by: 1) providing training to health professionals from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and other developing countries through the Sparkman International Public Health Summer Institute at UAB, to fellows (UAB, Muskie, Fulbright, Fogarty), and to UAB graduate students and staff; 2) participating in the Centers for Disease Control/World Health Organization (CDC-WHO) Training Collaborative for the FSU; 3) sponsoring workshops and symposia at international conferences; and 4) developing, translating, printing, and disseminating TB training materials in manual and CD-Rom formats.

Dr. Kimerling and his staff also provide lectures on TB in the Schools of Medicine and Public Health and are responsible for the TB Primer, last updated in April 2004. Distributed to all UAB medical house staff, the Primer is a product of UAB's previous NIH-funded TB Academic Award. As the UAB Principal Investigator, Dr. Kimerling is a member of the CDC-funded Tuberculosis Epidemiologic Studies Consortium, which is a national network focused on operations research. He also maintains close working ties with the WHO and the Stop TB Partnership, both based in Geneva, as well as the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Paris.

For additional information:

Director: Michael E. Kimerling, MD, MPH
Email: kimerlin@uab.edu
Phone: 205-934-1731

Administrator: Mayra Arias
Email: arias@uab.edu
Phone: 205-934-1731

Gorgas TB Initiative website: www.gorgasinfo.org

Approved by: Michael E. Kimerling, MD, MPH, Director
Date: May 14, 2007

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