[Swiss cooperation in the development of public health in Tanzania]

With the financial support of the Basle Foundation for Aid to Developing Countries and in close collaboration with the St. Francis hospital, the Swiss Tropical Institute has set up and looked after a teaching centre at Ifakara, Tanzania, for the training of African medical, paramedical and auxiliary personnel. In the course of seventeen years, 770 young Africans have undergone training here. The centre has now been handed over in its final form as a Medical Assistants Training Centre to the Tanzanian Government, which has assumed full responsibility for its further direction and maintenance. The results obtained and the experience gained are discussed, as is the relationship of the centre to the public health policy of the Tanzanian Government. The writer considers that the whole undertaking has been of great mutual benefit and is looking forward to further collaboration between the Swiss Tropical Institute. Based on the Field Laboratory Ifakara, this will be mainly in applied epidemiological research, e.g. on schistosomiasis in and around Ifakara.