With a staff of 700, the ‘Pedro Kouri’ Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK) is Cuba’s leading public health institute. IPK’s main goals are to prevent the spread of communicable diseases, collaborate with international health institutes working in similar or related fields, and facilitate the development of biomedical research and training throughout Cuba. IPK has five departments: microbiology, parasitology, medical care, epidemiology, and teaching.

In 2008, the institute counted among its many achievements the country’s first phylogenetic study of Cuban epidemiologic chains of HIV transmission. Researchers at IPK found a genetic basis of antimicrobial resistance of enterococcus and molecular aspects influencing its spread. Also in 2008, IPV employed community strategies for Aedes aegypti control and dengue prevention and discovered an association between enterovirus infection and type 1 diabetes.