The World Health Organisation has designated three African universities centres of excellence for the training of postgraduate students in communicable disease epidemiology, writes Tunde Fatunde. They are: the University of Wi****ersrand (South Africa), Makarere University (Uganda) and Universite Nationale du Benin (Benin).
"In the past, students from Africa had to go to Europe and North America for advanced training in communicable diseases. This was expensive and often not related to Africa's needs," said Mary Ross of Wi****ersrand's college of medicine. Professor Ross said the WHO's move heralded the end of the Eurocentric era of African medical education.