In support of its disease surveillance and product development mission, AFRIMS research departments maintains a broad network of sites throughout Thailand. These locations provide critical, updated information about what diseases are found where and in what concentration, informing both force health protection and public health efforts.
Bacterial and Parasitic Diseases Department:
BPD maintains sites at Suan Pueng (Ratchaburi province) and Sai Yok (Kanchanaburi province). These field sites are used for Global Emerging Infections Surveillance-funded malaria drug resistance surveillance and the
Plasmodium vivax liver stage biomarker studies. Each site has a fixed hospital that allows an expanded referral network to bring blood samples to a fixed laboratory within four hours.
Entomology Department:
- Ratchaburi province: vector surveillance for the detection of Plasmodium parasites from Anopheles mosquitoes
- Samut Prakan province: vector surveillance for the detection of arboviruses including dengue, Chikungunya and Zika viruses from Aedes mosquitoes
- Tak province: vector surveillance for the detection of tick-borne diseases
AFRIMS Entomology also conducts entomological risk assessments for scrub typhus, leptospirosis and rickettsiosis in support of the multinational training exercise, Cobra Gold in Lopburi, Nakhon Sawan, Phitsanulok and Sukhothai provinces.
Retrovirology Department:
- Ratchaburi province: this site conducts activities under the Thai Ministry of Public Health, providing health services to people in surrounding area. This location also facilitates HIV assessment in high risk populations in central Thailand, informing acute HIV infection studies and helping identify participants for HIV vaccine trials.
- South East Asia Research Collaboration in HIV: established in 2009 as partnership between the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre and AFRIMS Retrovirology, SEARCH is working to create a model for long-term remission of HIV without the use of antiretroviral drugs.
- Vaccine Trial Centre (Bangkok): Established in 1984 as part of the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, the VRC works closely with AFRIMS Retrovirology in support of the mission for a preventive HIV vaccine. The VRC served as a site in the pivotal RV144 study as well as follow-up studies.
Virology Department:
- Phramongkutklao Hospital: serving as a military hospital for the Royal Thai Army, this partnership studies the epidemiological dynamics of arboviruses and respiratory viruses in an effort to generate solutions and epidemiological data for agencies within Thailand and Global Emerging Infections Surveillance.
- Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health: Virology has for several decades conducted dengue testing support and epidemiology alongside this hospital. This collaboration has contributed significant data in dengue disease care to the medical community while also assisting in the development of diagnostic products to serve public health interests.
Entomology Department:
- Phayao province: tick-borne disease surveillance as a part of their Global Emerging Infections Surveillance reporting responsibilities.
Retrovirology Department:
Bacterial and Parasitic Diseases Department:
- Sisaket Province: The AFRIMS Lab Khun Han is strategically located adjacent to a district malaria clinic and close to a fixed district facility hospital that treats civilian and military patients from the surrounding area. The lab consists of biosafety level-2 equipment for ex vivo culture of malaria and microscopy with PCR speciation of Plasmodium for surveillance. The laboratory can also conduct blood chemistry, glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase qualitative and quantitative testing, liver function tests and EKGs and maintains four ward rooms for therapeutic intervention studies. This location is also close to the Thai-Cambodian border, an epicenter of malaria drug resistance with access to the important military reservoir population in partnership with the Royal Thai Army.
Entomology Department:
AFRIMS Entomology also conducts entomological risk assessments for scrub typhus, leptospirosis and rickettsiosis in support of the multinational training exercise, Cobra Gold in Nakhon Ratchasima, Sisaket, Buriram, Chaiyaphum and Khon Kaen provinces.
Retrovirology Department:
- Nakorn Ratchasima province: this site conducts activities under the Thai Ministry of Public Health, providing health services to people in surrounding area. This location also facilitates HIV assessment in high risk populations in central Thailand, informing acute HIV infection studies and helping identify participants for HIV vaccine trials.
Bacterial and Parasitic Diseases Department:
AFRIMS partners three clinics that specialize in diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections in high risk populations. Current projects include a surveillance study conducting genotypic and phenotypic analysis of drug resistant
N. gonorrhoeae and a vaccine intervention study.
Entomology Department:
AFRIMS Entomology also conducts entomological risk assessments for scrub typhus, leptospirosis and rickettsiosis in support of the multinational training exercise, Cobra Gold in Chaechoeng Sao, Chantburi, Rayong, Sa Kaeo and Trat provinces.
Bacterial and Parasitic Diseases Department:
- Yala Province: In partnership with the Royal Thai Army, AFRIMS supports the collection of malaria parasites from several clinics in the region which are transferred to Bangkok for analysis. Strategically located along the Thai-Myanmar border, it has identified parasites with resistance patterns significantly different from along the Thai-Cambodia border.
Entomology Department:
AFRIMS Entomology also conducts entomological risk assessments for scrub typhus, leptospirosis and rickettsiosis in support of the multinational training exercise, Cobra Gold in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phang Nga and Surat Thani provinces.
Virology Department:
- Songkla Province: Since 2012, AFRIMS has partnered with the Prince of Songkla University Hospital to study the epidemiological dynamics of arboviruses in anticipation of its inclusion as a location chikungunya vaccine efficacy trials.