Excerpt from Annual Report of International Activities: Fiscal Year 1982

On behalf of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences (FIC) is pleased to present this 14th Annual Report of International Activities, covering the fiscal year 1982. Edited by the FIC, but based upon reports by each of the Bureaus, Institutes, and Divisions (BID's) of the NIH, this report provides an overview of international activities for the period. These activities are essential to the furtherance of the NIH mission and fall within the purview of one or more of the BID's.

The international programs of the NIH are specifically authorized under the International Health Research Act of 1960 (P.L. 86-610) to "advance the status of the health sciences in the United States and thereby the health of the American People through cooperative endeavors with other countries in health research, research planning, and research training.... "The benefits of NIH international programs, however, extend far beyond our borders. Cooperative relationships that the BID's have established through their intramural and extramural programs enable foreign biomedical and behavioral research scientists to collaborate with their U.S. counterparts to discover better means for treatment, control, and - ultimately - prevention of disease worldwide.

In 1968, the Fogarty International Center was established as the focal point for the international work of the NIH. Although the number and kinds of international programs differ from Institute to Institute, the FIC is the only NIH component with an explicit international mission, which includes NIH-wide coordination of activities relevant to this mission in addition to the conduct of specific international programs of its own.

The international activities of the NIH serve many scientific purposes, dictated by the specific objectives of the intramural and extramural programs of the categorical Institutes and the support and service Divisions. Implementation of these activities must in turn be responsive to and consistent with national and international policies. FIC coordinative functions link the NIH with other components of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of State, the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the Department of Justice, the U.S. Information Agency, foreign embassies in this country, science attaches, and multilateral organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). At the same time, international activities from year to year reflect changes in the health scene as advances are made and new challenges emerge. The NIH also recognizes the important needs of developing nations and has fostered contacts that are described in this report.

In its coordinative functions, the FIC has relied upon the cooperation of the BID's in providing the information for this report. Together we hope that the material is selected and presented in a way that is useful to a wide audience - including officials and the scientific community here and abroad - and illustrates the many ways international programs and activities contribute to biomedical and behavioral research and national health not only for the United States but also for the world at large. In assembling the overall report, we have made certain editorial modifications to the reports submitted by the individual BID's to achieve a consistent format. Because of size limitations, some deletions have been necessary. However, care has been taken not to alter the scientific content.

The first chapter of the report presents highlights of international activities that are described in greater detail in the individual BID chapters. In Chapter II, "Highlights of Recent Scientific