Prof. Truls Ostbye’s visit to Sri Lanka was marked by fruitful discussions, collaborative initiatives, and the exchange of valuable insights, further strengthening the activities carried out by the Duke Ruhuna Research Team.

Prof Ostbye and Prof Tillekeratne met with the Dean, Prof. T.P. Weerarathne, and discussed the progress of the ongoing works of the collaboration and the new idea regarding launching and developing a short course.

His meetings with Prof. C. K. Bodinayake, Prof. Ajith Nagahawatte, Ms. Ruvini Kurukulasooriya and Ms. Madureka Premamali included; Finalizing the collaboration manuscript and one health project discussion.

He was also able to meet with several members of the KDU research team; Dr. Darshan, Dr. Himali who’ll be collaborating with the Duke- Ruhuna team for the new study; “Incidence and risk factors for gut colonization with carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae in Southern Sri Lanka”. They discussed further improvements to the study proposal, creation of the budget, grant application and the testing plan. Dr. Subodha Wickramasinghe, Prof. C. K. Bodinayake, Dr. Gayani Tillekeratne, Dr. R. Kurukulasooriya and Ms. M. Premamali took part in this discussion.

Prof. Ostbye further met with Prof. Vijitha de Silva and Prof. Thyagi Ponnamperuma to discuss about the research projects of two  M.Sc students from Duke that will be conducted in Sri Lanka.

Furthermore, he met with Dr. Darshana, Prof. Chandani Senadeera, and Prof. Champa from Ruhuna, who were interested in beginning new collaborations and projects with DGHI. Specific research ideas were discussed and potential new DGHI collaborators were identified. Meetings will be planned between these new collaborators from Ruhuna and DGHI, with the goal of expanding the scope and depth of our current partnership.