The annual meeting in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene & Pharmacology is a regular scientific event, starting in 1996 and which in this year 2020 will complete its twenty-third edition. The event was created to bring together researchers, technicians and students at regional, national and international level interested in the scientific and technological development of research on tropical diseases that afflict populations in the Brazilian semiarid region. Initially the event was held with the effective participation of three groups of national researchers and three groups of international researchers. The groups of national researchers were led by professors Aldo AM Lima, Federal University of Ceará, Edgar M. Carvalho, Federal University of Bahia, and Selma Jerônimo, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. The international groups were led by the researchers, Richard L. Guerrant, University of Virginia, CHO, VA, Warren Johnson, Cornell University, NY and Lee W. Liley, University of California, Berkeley, CA. The annual event has covered topics of ongoing research and perspectives in several areas of tropical medicine such as leishmaniasis, leptospirosis, diarrheal diseases, tropical enteropathy, malnutrition, human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), leprosy, tuberculosis, among others. This year we included the topic arboviruses (dengue, zika, chikungunya and yellow fever) as emerging and reemerging tropical diseases of regional, national and global importance in health. The event will be held in Fortaleza, CE, February 14-15, 2020. The event is open to the public of researchers, professors, undergraduate and graduate students, as well as technical personnel. Annually the event receives 40-60 people participating among regional, national, international researchers, students and technicians. The event has contributed to the development of research in tropical medicine and hygiene & pharmacology at the regional, national and international levels, maintaining research networks in areas of interest in public health facing the developing in the Brazilian semiarid region. We also mention the effective participation and in the last seven years of two INCTs (Biomedicine- http://www.nubimed.ufc.br and Immunology of Tropical Diseases- inct.cnpq.br/web/inct-dt). National and international collaboration, such as the international exchange of graduate students and technicians, has been significant and innovative in the creation of long-term sustainable models of research networks (RECODISA: http://www.recodisa.ufc.br; MAL-ED: http://www.upcibimed.ufc.br/MAL-ED) and postgraduate degrees in Medical Sciences (Level 6 CAPES), Microbiology (Level 5 CAPES), Pharmacology (Level 6 CAPES) and Morphofunctional Sciences (Level 4 CAPES), as well as demonstrating its importance in national and global public health.

Brief history of previous editions

In the last forty years, initially two national research groups, led by professors Aldo AM Lima and Edgar M. Carvalho, developed in lines of research related to tropical medicine, leishmaniasis and diarrheal diseases & malnutrition, at Universidade Federal do Ceará and Universidade Federal da Bahia, respectively. Subsequently, a third group led by Professor Selma Jerônimo from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, also emerged in the line of research in leishmaniasis. From the beginning, these three research groups have maintained relevant and significant international collaboration with international groups led by researchers, Richard L. Guerrant, University of Virginia, CHO, VA, Warren Johnson, Cornell University, NY and Lee W. Liley, University of California, Berkeley, CA. The development and progress in these lines of research led to the aggregation of new researchers and the national and international financial support of these groups by national research funding agents, CNPq and CAPES, and internationally, such as the National Institute of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, most recently the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The common environment of research related to tropical medicine in a region of national priority such as the region in the Brazilian semiarid, as well as the created network of financing for these groups led to the formatting of this event, the most recent named Annual Meeting in Tropical Medicine Research Center & Pharmacology. The first annual meeting of the Tropical Medicine Research Center took place in mid-March 1996. Figure 1 illustrates only the researchers participating in the II Annual Meeting of the Tropical Medicine Research Center in Salvador, BA, in March-1997. Note researchers Lee W. Liley (1st from left to right), Aldo AM Lima (3rd), Edgar M Carvalho (6th in the first line), Selma Jerônimo (8th in the first line), Richard Pearson, UVa, CHO, VA (1st. On the second line), and Warren Johnson (2nd. On the second line).

Figure 2 shows the team of speakers and undergraduate and graduate students participating in the XXII Tropical Medicine Research Center. The longevity of this event is based mainly on the regional, national and international interaction and collaboration of researchers linked to the lines of research in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene & Pharmacology. This interaction and collaboration has resulted in fruitful scientific and technological production, patents, training of human resources at postgraduate, postdoctoral, technical level, as well as allowing the institutional expansion of the International Collaboration Program through the CAPES-PRINT project (2018-2022). The results can be seen through the CVs of the leading researchers and collaborators. Two international research agreements between UFBA & University of Cornell and UFC, UFRGN & University of Virginia were developed over this period and today constitute international scientific and technological cooperation models for several other national and international institutions. Leading researchers today are recognized nationally and internationally in societies such as the Brazilian Society of Tropical Medicine, the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, ASTMH and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, ABC. This interaction allowed the development of several national and international patents, awards, medals and honors for the researchers participating in these annual events. The results of these researches have been impressive in Brazil and in the world and in the development of new prophylaxis and treatment of these tropical diseases mentioned in the preliminary program of this event of the XXIII Annual Meeting in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene & Pharmacology. As a result of the promotion of these annual and regular meetings, it was possible to develop two INCTs, Biomedicine and Immunology of Tropical Diseases, and two research networks, RECODISA (www.recodisa.ufc.br) and MAL-ED (www.mal-ed.fnih.org), nationally and internationally. The list of participants in these events and today formed through national and international graduate programs as evidenced in the leaders' CVs lattes, demonstrates the training capacity of human resources that had directly or indirectly promoted these annual and regular meetings of the Tropical Medicine Research Center. The quality of this training can be assessed through the majority,> 80% of graduates, are now professors and / or researchers from national and / or international institutions. It is important to mention that through these international collaborations it was possible for the international insertion of graduate programs.