A course on infectious diseases to students of the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th years of the Faculty of Medicine, 3rd year of the Faculty of Nursing, 4th year of the Faculty of Odontology and 2nd year of the Faculty of Public Health, as well as graduate students of this faculty is taught at the department. Since 2010 the Infectious Diseases Club operates at the Department. During post-graduate studies, the infectious disease course is continued at the department by residents of neurology, dermatovenerology, internal medicine and family medicine. The Department of Infectious Diseases is the main training base for infectious disease residents and doctoral students. The department teaches an infectious disease course for PhD students of LSMU in various fields, and systematically organises improvement courses for infectious disease doctors and family doctors.
The main directions of the department’s scientific work are the etiological, epidemiological, pathogenetic, clinical and diagnostic aspects of neuroinfections, as well as studies on the effectiveness of influenza treatment and vaccines. The results of scientific work were presented at international conferences and world congresses held in various countries. In a five-year period (2013-2017), four doctoral dissertations were defended (3 at LSMU and 1 at Stockholm Karolinska University (Karolinska Institutet, Sweden).
The staff of the department are experts of the tick-borne disease working groups of the Baltic-Northern countries and Europe, reviewers of international peer-reviewed journals in the field of infectology, and members of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), Baltic-Northern countries and French infectious disease associations.
In 2008-2017, department’s colleagues published 21 articles in the ISI Web of Science database, 16 articles in journals referenced in international databases.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND COLLABORATION
The department closely cooperates with the Infectious Diseases Clinic of Stockholm Karolinska University (Sweden), Uppsala University Infectious Diseases Clinic (Sweden), Gothenburg University Infectious Diseases Clinic (Sweden), Grenoble University Infectious and Travelers Diseases Clinic (France), Bialystok Medical University Infectious Diseases Clinic (Poland), Riga Centre for Infectious Diseases and Infectious Diseases, Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS Clinic (Latvia).
Scientific research, internships for residents, doctoral students, doctors and nurses, and international conferences are organised in cooperation with the aforementioned clinics.
CURRENT PROJECTS
EU-TICK-BO (European Genetics Study of Tick-borne Encephalitis; multicentral study coordinated by Graz University (Austria),
An observational case-control study to measure seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness in hospitalized patients in Lithuania (joint project with I-MOVE (Integrated Monitoring of Vaccines Effects in Europe) consortium (funded from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 634446).
A prospective study on the long-term outcome and pathogenesis of tick-borne encephalitis (in cooperation with the Department of Infectious Diseases and Department of Pharmacology and Physiology of Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and the Department of Infectious Diseases of Göteborg University, Sweden). Funded by Pfizer as a grant for the Independent Investigator Initiated Research Proposal (Project Code/PO/Tracking Number WI236259).
European Network for Collaboration on Encephalitis Investigations & Follow-up (multicentral study coordinated by Grenoble University, France).