Akanlu Research Center  

Research Center for Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases(Web Site)

In 1952 during a plague outbreak in the western area of Iran, Pasteur Institute of Iran founded a research Centre in Akanlu, a village located between Zanjan, Kurdistan and Hamadan provinces. As a result of the foundation of this Centre, the teams of Pasteur Institute of Iran could deal with the control of the plague, the endemic of that region at that time, in there via taking effective strategies.

In this research centre, nowadays is called Research Centre for Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases, Dr. Baltazard and his Iranian colleagues conducted extensive research on plague, and the Akanlu research centre established itself as an international reference institution for plague. The researchers of this centre conducted extensive studies on different aspects of the plague. The experts and researchers of Pasteur Institute of Iran, known as WHO experts, continued to conduct related research in many countries.

The Research Centre for Emerging and Reemerging infectious diseases can be regarded as the pioneer centre for field epidemiology in Iran. The Department of Epidemiology of Pasteur Institute of Iran and the Akanlu Research Centre did researches on tularemia, recurrent fever, rabies in addition to plague studies during the years.

Since 2013, 300 square meters of the old buildings were renovated and laboratories and new buildings with a surface area of 340 square meters were completed. The dedicated laboratories for rodentology studies, serology, molecular studies and culture, seminar halls and guest accommodation (for up to 40 persons) offer a suitable environment for research and education in this region. The centre holds the national reference laboratory for plague, tularemia and Q fever, aims to be the WHO collaborating centre in near future and has conducted several studies on emerging and reemerging infectious diseases so far. The Centre’s educational activities are in the form of workshops, implementation of educational courses and internships and apprenticeship courses.

Director of the Centre: Dr Ehsan Mostafavi; email: mostafavi@pasteur.ac.ir

To get more information you can visit the centre website: http://akanlu.pasteur.ac.ir/en