Iran

Kerman University of Medical Sciences and HIV/STI Surveillance Research Center

Kerman University of Medical Sciences was established in 1977 and was recently designated as responsible for public health and research programs for the southeast region of Iran. KMU comprises eight schools including medical, dental, pharmacy, traditional medicine, public health, nursing and midwifery, management and information sciences, and paramedics, with over 460 academic staff and approximately 6,000 students. Degrees range from Bachelor of Science to PhD (including medical degrees), clinical residencies, sub-specialty fellowships, and post-doctoral research fellowships. KMU provides several support facilities including: sports and entertainment, IT services, central library, transportation services, dormitories for international students.

There are 24 research centers across disciplines in KMU, including the HIV/STI Surveillance Research Centre, and WHO Collaborating Center for HIV Surveillance (HIVHUB). The HIVHUB was established in 2009 with funding from WHO, UNAIDS, and Iran CDC to provide training in HIV research for countries in the eastern Mediterranean regional office (EMRO). The HIVHUB also serves as a technical resource for studies among people who inject drugs, their partners, female sex workers, street children, high-risk youth, men who have sex with men, and prisoners. Current collaborating faculty members including: George Rutherford MD, PhD, Willi McFarland MD, PhD, MPH, Ali Mirzazadeh MD, PhD, Paul Wesson, PhD from UCSF; and AliAkbar Haghdoost MD, PhD, Hamid Sharifi DVM, PhD, Iraj Sharifi, PhD, and Majid Fasihi-Harandi, PhD from KMU.

HIVHUB has provided HIV research capacity building since its inception, conducted 15 international and 4 national training workshops, and developed 4 training modules on HIV surveillance. In two years of collaboration, UCSF and the HIVHUB have jointly produced 35 publications, trained 6 mentors, 16 mentees, and completed 4 joint research projects. HIVHUB research and consultation, in collaboration with other parts of the KMU, also encompasses other infectious diseases like SARS-COV-2, tuberculosis, and several tropical diseases and vector-borne diseases like malaria, leishmaniosis, cystic echinococcosis, and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever.

Site contact: Dr. Hamid Sharifi