This Masters course was born in 2003. It was called Emerging Infectious Diseases. At that time no one imagined that over time others with the same surname would be born. Perhaps thanks to the coronavirus, which appeared and rapidly caused disease in several thousand people (2003) [1]. But over its short lifetime the Masters course had to live alongside other emerging diseases: plague in Algeria (2003) [2], Ebola in the Sudan (2004), yellow fever in Mali (2005) [3], plague in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2006), cholera in Luanda, Angola (2006) [4], Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2007) [5] and Uganda (2007), child paralysis in Nigeria (2007) [6], cholera in Somalia (2007) [7], plague in Madagascar (2008) [8], cholera in Ethiopia (2007) [9] and meningitis in West Africa (2009) [10]. And, as if this were not enough, at the tender age of six it had to deal with Swine Flu, which swiftly became a pandemic [11].

However, and despite all these scares, it has been developing quite well. One of the many reasons for this to have happened has to do with its friend, the Blog. This friend is three years old, is virtual and was created by João Santos (Masters 2004/2006). It has already shared information with over 5,000 (other) friends, about dates for defending Masters theses, meetings, courses and congresses and links to magazines, among other things. And also about the annual dinner and… others (figures 1 and 2).
If you want to get to know it, just go to http://mestradodoencasinfecciosas.blogspot.com/.
It’s always there.

Augusto Gomes and Sofia Couto (Masters 2007/2009). On that day several Masters students from different years, Dr. António Santos, Professor Thomas Hanscheid, Professor Emília Valadas, Professor Francisco Antunes and other friends of the Blog went to see “The Complete Works of Shakespeare in 97 Minutes”, by the Chiado Theatre Company. The presence of Augusto and Sofia ended up being crucial for the fantastic outcome of the play! 

Emília Valadas, Francisco Antunes
University Clinic of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases
21 7805274
evaladas@fm.ul.pt

1. Ksiazek TG, Erdman D, Goldsmith CS, et al. A novel coronavirus associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome. N Engl J Med 2003, 348:1953-66.
2. Bertherat E, Bekhoucha S, Chougrani S, et al. Plague reappearance in Algeria after 50 years, 2003. Emerg Infect Dis 2007, 13:1459-62.
3. WHO. Yellow fever situation in Africa and South America, 2005. http://www.who.int/ wer/2006/wer8133.pdf (accessed 12/06/09).
4. Worst cholera outbreak in Angola. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4990960.stm(accessed 12/06/09).
5. Mourners die as fever grips Congo. http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/mourners-die-as-fever-grips-congo/2007/08/30/1188067243698.html (accessed 12/06/09).
6. Vaccine-linked polio hits Nigeria. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7037462.stm (accessed 12/06/09).
7. Somalia cholera death fears grow. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6594659.stm(accessed 12/06/09).
8. Madagascar: eighteen dead from bubonic plague, five in hospital since 1 January 2008. http://eldib.wordpress.com/2008/01/10/2175/ (accessed 12/06/09).
9. Scrascia M, Pugliese N, Maimone F, Mohamud KA, Ali IA, Grimont PA, Pazzani C. Cholera in Ethiopia in the 1990s: epidemiologic patterns, clonal analysis, and antimicrobial resistance. Int J Med Microbiol. 2009, 299:367-72.
10. Odigwe C. West Africa has worst meningitis epidemic for 10 years. BMJ 2009, 338:b1638.
11. WHO. World now at the start of 2009 influenza pandemic. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2009/h1n1_pandemic_phase6_20090611/en/index.html(accessed 12/06/09).