Scientists and medical professionals from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America collaborated on improving healthcare in developing countries through the use of science and technology during a conference, June 13-16, 2011 in Stuttgart, Germany.

The Science and Technology Conference, hosted jointly by U.S. Africa Command and U.S. European Command, provided a forum for more than 200 participants to share ideas and experiences and to present new research and developments.

Following two days of plenary sessions, which provided overviews on medical programs and initiatives used by participating organizations, attendees broke up into two groups to provide technology recommendations in support of AFRICOM's and EUCOM's missions.

"This year's AFRICOM/EUCOM Science & Technology Conference is focusing on infectious disease in Africa...a first for this annual event," said Colonel (Doctor) Robert Miller, AFRICOM's command surgeon. "It brings together professionals with an interest in our theatre and the response has been tremendous. It's a great opportunity to share cutting edge research and projects that may make a difference on the continent regarding disease surveillance, prevention, and treatment. This important meeting directly supports the AFRICOM [Surgeon General] motto 'stability through health'."

Approximately 15 Africans from Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Tanzania, and Uganda were represented at the event, along with representatives from AFRICOM, the Office of the Secretary of Defense medical community, academic partners, and non-governmental organizations.

Advances in healthcare in Africa and other developing countries rely on more than just medicine, according to Major Robert Carter, a U.S. AFRICOM staff officer. They need the technology to support prevention, detection, immunization, and treatment of diseases. Types of technology discussed during panel sessions included an influenza surveillance system to detect influenza strains with the potential for pandemic; a Rift Valley Fever Monitoring and Prediction System; and the use of mobile phones as medical surveillance tools and to provide health and disaster alerts.

Among the participants was Major Edwin Kamau, a Kenya native, who joined the U.S. military as a microbiologist to contribute to malaria research and efforts in Africa.

"Being from Kenya, and having had malaria when I was young, I knew there was something that needed to be done," he said. "I wanted to be a part of that [research]."

He had the chance to contribute to malaria research in 2005, following graduate school at Louisiana State University, when he got a job as a medical physician at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland, and developed a real-time PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction), a test to detect malaria. In the Fall of 2009, Kamau returned to Kenya to transfer this technology to labs there.

He is now working with an external company to make this technology more portable and accessible to developing countries.

"The needs in Africa are very different from the needs of other more developed countries, so you have to talk to people on the ground and modify technology to meet their needs," Kamau said. "One of the reasons PCR has not been so extensively utilized is because the equipment is huge, heavy, and requiring power. This new model will be battery operated, very portable equipment which have the same sensitivities."

Kamau said that ultimately he would like to see malaria completely eradicated from Africa, as it was in the United States about 50 years ago, but that it will require more equipment and resources.

"Our goal is to go to areas where malaria has been reduced because some people still carry malaria but don't have the disease. But what happens is the disease can still be transmitted from one person to another," said Kamau. He went on to explain that by identifying people carrying malaria, they can then treat it, and reduce the spread of the disease.

Conference participants were challenged to brainstorm and provide recommendations to AFRICOM on technology that can deliver capabilities for African partner nations.

"Think about AFRICOM's environment, challenges, and medical and science and technology requirements on the continent," said Daniel "Kaz" Kasmierski, Science and Technology advisor for the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense. "As the outcome of the conference, we'd like to have a joint investment, not financially, but technically, to think about a project we could do jointly to benefit Africans."