Lower respiratory infections, primarily pneumonia, are a leading cause of early childhood mortality globally, responsible for about 750 thousand deaths annually in children aged <5 years. Although most regions have seen declines in mortality over the past several decades, childhood pneumonia mortality rates remain high in low- and middle-income countries, including Guatemala. The reasons for this variability in childhood pneumonia are not fully understood and limit the development of effective policies for disease prevention. Members of our team have been studying childhood pneumonia in Guatemala for over a decade, building a strong, though incomplete, foundation for a formal training program in this area. A collaboration with the US CDC and the Guatemalan Ministry of Health has developed a surveillance program to provide systematic measurement of incidence, risk factors and etiologies of respiratory and other acute infectious diseases at public health facilities in Guatemala. Furthermore, several large international intervention studies have evaluated ways to reduce household air pollution and its effects on childhood respiratory illnesses, including pneumonia. This interdisciplinary research combines expertise from implementation science, environmental health, molecular epidemiology, and childhood respiratory disease. Despite the success of these programs, Guatemala has not yet developed the capacity to to sufficiently train scientists and public health professionals to contribute fully to this research agenda. These current research projects at UVG and future research priorities on childhood pneumonia prevention in Guatemala create demand for local epidemiologists prepared to lead the research. Our long-term vision is to develop a sustainable training program that provides expertise both on subjet matter of childhood pneumonia in Guatemala and methodological on intervention research. This future program will help build capacity through both degree and non-degree training activities based in Guatemala and the University of Georgia. The goal for this planning grant is to prepare and submit a proposal for the envisioned training program, prepare the UVG and UGA faculty trainers to conduct the program, and improve or develop materials for the proposed curriculum. For the two-year planning process, our specific aims are: 1. Define a leadership team and develop a strategic plan for building research capacity in childhood infectious disease epidemiology; 2. address the critical faculty development needs among potential Guatemala- and US-based trainers that relate to intervention research and the epidemiology of childhood pneumonia; 3. identify and assess the needs of a pool of potential trainees from Guatemala that have career goals related to research on prevention of childhood pneumonia or similar health issues; and 4. outline a training program and develop new courses and programs to include in D43. By undertaking a rigorous approach to collaboratively planning a Guatemala- and US-based training program in intervention research with a focus on childhood pneumonia, we will build the capacity required to strengthen prevention of the leading infectious cause of death in Guatemalan children.

Lower respiratory infections, primarily pneumonia, are a leading cause of early childhood mortality globally, especially in low- and middle-income countries like Guatemala. The reasons for this variability in childhood pneumonia are not fully understood, limiting the development of effective policies for disease prevention. The goal of this planning grant is to prepare and submit a proposal for a formal training program to build research and training capacity in childhood pneumonia at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. During a two-year planning period, we will comprise a leadership team who will promote local faculty development, perform a needs assessment, develop new foundational courses for the program, and submit a formal application.