We kicked off the OMI seminar series with a real showstopper after the summer break: Our annual Global Health course, in partnership with none other than the esteemed Institut Pasteur in Paris! The course took place from August 23 to August 29, 2026, and focused on the pressing matter of vector-borne diseases.
To tackle this important topic, twelve international specialists pooled their expertise to teach and answer all the eager fellows’ questions. What made this week’s faculty cohort stand out was their diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise. The seminar was once again led by Anna-Bella Failloux, who is a medical entomologist and chief of the unit “Arboviruses and Insect Vectors” in the Department of Virology at the Institut Pasteur in Paris.
From the Institut Pasteur, she was joined by Sarah Bonnet, Simon Cauchemez, and Javier Pizarro-Cerda. Stéphanie Blandin (Inserm Lab “Mosquito Immune Responses”, France), Cyril Caminade (The Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics, Italy), Xavier de Lamballerie (Marseille University, France), Mawlouth Diallo (Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Senegal), Nelson Grisales (World Mosquito Program, France), Anne Lavergne (Institut Pasteur de la Guyane, French Guiana), Petr Volf (Charles University, Czech Republic), and Stéphan Zientara (ANSES-Animal Health Laboratory, France) made up the remainder of the cohort.
The diverse cohort of 35 fellows, including physicians, researchers, and scientists, came from 28 countries from all over the world. Some countries featured this week, beyond the OMI’s usual targets, were Argentina, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Laos, Madagascar, Niger, Senegal, and Tunisia.
Out of 35, ten participants were nominated by the Institut Pasteur International Network. Three of them will take advantage of the unique opportunity to take part in an observership at the Institut Pasteur in Paris following the seminar week in Salzburg. This is a new joint project between the OMI and the Institut Pasteur.
“This intensive course covered the most significant vector-borne diseases, the causes of their emergence, and how to anticipate their emergence and effectively control them. Twelve faculty members with globally recognized expertise presented these diseases: those caused by viruses (dengue, chikungunya, Zika, yellow fever, Rift Valley fever, West Nile virus, Usutu, etc.), bacteria (plague, Lyme disease, etc.), and parasites (malaria, filariasis, trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, etc.),” summarized the course director.
A fascinating fact about our global health program is that these specific seminars have not only taken place at our headquarters in Salzburg but have also been held at our two other hubs in Mexico and in Vietnam. All of these seminars have been extremely popular, which showcases the high demand for global health education worldwide as well as the importance of sharing and disseminating knowledge in this interdisciplinary field.
When asked why she continues to support the Open Medical Institute, Anna-Bella Failloux explained: “The first course on vector-borne diseases (VBDs) took place in 2019. It proved to be a success, as seven years later, this course remains relevant, especially in the context of climate change, environmental upheavals, and globalization. VBDs take advantage of human-created opportunities to expand their ranges and affect the health of millions of people. This seminar is unique because it provides insight into the transmission of VBDs from a rarely explored perspective: that of the vector.”
This week, we were also honored to host Dr. Daniel C. West, who is Associate Chair for Education with the Department of Pediatrics and the Stephen Ludwig Endowed Chair in Medical Education at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. It was a pleasure to give Dr. West an overview of our programs and their worldwide impact.
More information about this week’s faculty:
Sarah Bonnet works at the Institut Pasteur in the Ecology and Emergence of Arthropod-Borne Pathogens Unit. Simon Cauchemez is Head of the Laboratory of the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases Unit at Institut Pasteur. Javier Pizarro-Cerda is Director of the Yersinia Research Unit at Institut Pasteur.
Stéphanie Blandin is the Director of the Inserm Lab “Mosquito Immune Responses”. Cyril Caminade is a research scientist at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Italy. Xavier de Lamballerie is a Professor of Medicine at Marseille University and Head of the Medical Virology Department at the Marseille University Hospital. Mawlouth Diallo is Director of Research at Institut Pasteur de Dakar. Nelson Grisales serves as Executive Director of Delivery of the World Mosquito Program. Anne Lavergne is the Head of the National Reference Center for Hantavirus, and Deputy Head of the National Reference Center for Arbovirus at the Institut Pasteur de la Guyane. Petr Volf is Head of the Laboratory for Vector Biology at Charles University, Prague. Stéphan Zientara is Director of the ANSES-Laboratory of Animal Health.
Idrissa Dieng
OMI fellow from Senegal
“The different topics presented by the faculty and the rich discussions with fellow participants highlighted one important lesson: to effectively address vector-borne diseases, we need an integrated and multidisciplinary approach that brings together clinical practice, epidemiology, diagnostics, vector biology, environmental sciences, public health, and research. No single discipline can tackle the complexity of VBDs alone.”
Leonardo Perales Guerrero
OMI fellow from Mexico
“Anne Laverge gave a fascinating lecture on understanding viral diseases’ emergence and led a round table session about protecting biodiversity to prevent new emerging infectious diseases. The round table grew progressively more engaging, with everybody contributing a unique opinion, a great idea, a personal experience from the field, or an interesting question.”
Antsa Rakotonirina
OMI fellow from Madagascar
“Javier Pizzaro-Cerda gave an outstanding lecture on the history of plague. I have heard about plague many times before, but I felt that I had never really understood its history as well as I did during this presentation. The story was fascinating, but also very sad, showing how deeply plague has affected human societies throughout history. It also made me think more about the enormous impact that vector-borne diseases can have on humanity and how they have shaped our history.”
Nicol Říhová
OMI fellow from Czech Republic
“The sessions on tick-borne diseases were a major highlight for me, particularly because of their direct relevance to my clinical practice. We learned from Sarah Bonnet that because of global warming, tick activity is also changing throughout the year. This means that we should consider tick-borne diseases even during months that were traditionally considered too cold for significant tick activity.”
Agustin Rolandelli
OMI fellow from Argentina
“Anna-Bella Failloux’s lectures covered the major arboviruses (dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever), from their historical distribution and transmission mechanisms by mosquitoes to co-infection dynamics and how vector competence is assessed in the lab. Watching how mosquito labs design their competence experiments gave me many ideas to bring back to my lab.”
Tiger Soulaphy
OMI fellow from Laos
“I enjoyed Cyril Caminade’s lecture on climate change and vector-borne diseases. It was interesting to learn how changes in temperature, rainfall, and other environmental factors can influence vector distribution and disease transmission. This talk reminded me that environmental changes can have an important impact on public health and the future of vector-borne diseases.”
