Massey taps initial $5.2m World Bank contract

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Massey University has signed a $5.2 million deal to train 250 Asian public health workers in biosecurity over the next three years - with the students being sponsored by the World Bank.

So far 69 students have enrolled to learn how to recognise and respond to potential epidemic outbreaks, and further phases of the contract to offer the current English-language degree programme in Chinese and Russian may push its value over $32m, the university said today.

The Massey veterinary science and public health specialists have already begun teaching biosecurity components of postgraduate master's degrees in public health and veterinary medicine to students in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.

The teaching is being done through a mixture of distance education and face-to-face teaching at regional sessions.

Vice-chancellor Steve Maharey gave credit to a Massey academic, Professor Emeritus Roger Morris - an epidemiologist who has been at the frontline of efforts to combat the bird flu epidemic since 2005 - for recognising the opportunity and the putting the case for Massey to provide the teaching.

A former director of the university's EpiCentre, Prof Morris worked closely with the British government in efforts to contain the foot and mouth epidemic there in 2001.

The project is being led by Eric Neumann, a veterinarian and epidemiologist from the EpiCentre, and by Associate Professor Cindy Kiro, the director of the School of Public Health.

Mr Maharey said the World Bank contract was a significant acknowledgement of Massey's unique position of offering internationally recognised expertise in human and animal health issues, through its veterinary, animal and biomedical sciences institute, based in Palmerston North, and its centre for public health research, based in Wellington.

"In the past decade there has been an upsurge in infections diseases that affect people and animals, such as bird flu, swine flu, HIV/Aids, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)," Mr Maharey said.

"In many, animals have been the initial source of infection.

"There is a need to provide public health doctors and veterinarians with additional skills to respond effectively to these challenges," he said.

But in developing countries particularly there had been difficulties in providing access to that training.

Mr Maharey said the university was responding to the need to diversify its income streams, and in this case some of the money was coming from funds administered by the World Bank and donated by the European Commission under the Avian and Human Influenza Trust Fund.

Other countries identified as potential beneficiaries of the agreement are Afghanistan and Bhutan.

- NZPA