In 2015, the University of São Paulo partnered with the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Harvard University, and Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), to launch a regional edition of the Science of Eradication: Malaria course. Hosted by the University of São Paulo’s School of Public Health, this training and leadership development course provided a multidisciplinary perspective on malaria disease eradication. This course followed the successful pilot regional course convened by ISGlobal in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization in El Salvador in 2014.

Presented by the São Paulo School of Advanced Science, this course was designed for students at the undergraduate, graduate, or postdoctoral levels from institutions world-wide, including the Americas, Caribbean, Europe, and malaria-endemic countries in Africa and Asia. Global public health professionals, private sector professionals, academic faculty, scientists and researchers, malaria control program administrators, and field-based personnel from these regions attended.

Over an 11-day period, participants had an opportunity to visit local malaria research laboratories, interact with scientists from the area, and gain knowledge and skills to develop and direct malaria control, elimination, and eradication programs through an understanding of:

• malaria biology and epidemiology;
• vector biology and control;
• surveillance techniques;
• impact of social, political, and environmental factors;
• new tools for eradication;
• history of malaria eradication.

This course offered 4.0 units of graduate-level course credit from the Graduate Program on Host-Pathogen Relationships of the University of São Paulo.