Approaches to addressing occupational and environmental health needs in Mexico

The University of California, Los Angeles, has somewhat shifted the focus of its Fogarty program, taking a four-pronged approach: conducting high-level collaborative scientific research with Mexican faculty and trainees at the most advanced institutions in the country; providing training and collaborative research opportunities to faculty/students at other institutions in Mexico (primarily through training faculty who do not hold doctoral degrees); providing environmental and occupational health training to the professional community throughout Mexico; and developing short courses on special topics that provide means for greater research collaboration and skill building. The program is also working with existing institutions to develop academic programs that will enlarge the environmental and occupational health infrastructures in Mexico and Latin America.