Skip to main content
Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Risk Mitigation
News article1 October 2020BrusselsJoint Research Centre, Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development

Labplus Africa (Project 85) is active in the African Partner Countries to the EU CBRN Centres of Excellence programme to counter COVID-19 spread

Large-scale epidemics are becoming more and more frequent and constitute a health, economic, social and security threat. Resource-limited, at-risk settings are most vulnerable to the burden and amplification of epidemics — particularly in Africa.  

Mobile labs may be particularly useful in responding to epidemics such as COVID-19, because as far as sound prerequisite conditions are fulfilled, they can be mobilised quickly, can provide a flexible response which responds to local needs. The costs of their deployment include the one-off costs as well as the ongoing costs (staff recruitment, retention, ongoing training, utilities, power, water, waste treatment & disposal, maintenance, servicing, calibration, repair and replacement of equipment, consumables and reagents, ...). 

All these mandatory conditions being fulfilled thanks to the Institut Pasteur global network (including Institut Pasteur Dakar) and the relevant network of African Health Institutes, the Mobile Labs can also be easily integrated into and interoperable with local and regional systems. The current project Labplus Africa (Project 85) relies on successful previous test case (see the article "Praesens Foundation, Institut Pasteur, Institut Pasteur de Dakar, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Twist Bioscience Consortium Win Prix Galien MedStartUp Award")

The European Union teamed up with the International Science and Technology Centre, Pasteur Institute Senegal and Praesens Care to provide health assistance using mobile labs to help tackle the COVID-19 crisis.

This involves adapting the activities of the EU-funded Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence Initiative, and activating this network to adopt mitigation measures to slow the spread of the virus.

Details

Publication date
1 October 2020
Authors
Joint Research Centre | Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development
Location
Brussels
CoE Region
AAF - African Atlantic FaçadeECA - Eastern and Central AfricaNAS - North Africa and Sahel