[Leish-l] Sao Paulo School of Advanced Science

[Oscar Daniel Salomon]

Dear colleagues. A week ago, without prior or subsequent communication with
us, the presidential decision to close the National Institute of Tropical
Medicine-INMeT, which organised ISOPS VIII in Puerto Iguazu, was published.
The arguments presented can be refuted with documentary evidence, and the
future discussed with actors who present alternatives, but there is no
willingness to dialogue. Fourteen years after the creation of INMeT, and
three years after the inauguration of the 10000 m2 building with BSL2 and
BSL3 laboratories among other facilities, it will be liquidated, and it is
proposed that the numerous lines of work be absorbed by other institutions
1400 km away from the subtropical area. The enormous investment in human
resources training, structure and infrastructure, the effort made, and the
hope of young people who approached the project with the conviction that
they could contribute to reducing health inequalities through research,
will be lost. For this reason, it is my duty to gather wills, to try to
rescue what we believe is necessary so that those who come after us can
rebuild before all that is left is scorched earth.

Many thanks to the community of leishmaniacs for having accompanied us in
our growth since the outbreak of leishmaniasis in Argentina in 1985, and
especially since ISOPS I in Rome.

Dr Oscar Daniel Salomón
Researcher Senior CIC CONICET
National Institute of Tropical Medicine
ANLIS "Dr. Carlos G Malbrán"
Almafuerte y Ámbar s/n (3370)
Puerto Iguazú, Misiones, ARGENTINA


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