PROJECT 085: LABPLUS AFRICA - Strengthening Laboratory Capacities in Africa against CoVID-19 and other epidemics: from set up in Senegal to scale up in Africa

Context

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. This is notably true of CoVID-19, which rapidly spread to other Chinese provinces and to several countries, including in Africa. Hence, mitigating the risk of extension of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemics in Africa is of the utmost importance to preserve the continent as much as possible from the human and economic consequences associated with a possible large-scale spread of the virus.

This action proposes a strategic framework to reinforce preparedness and response to CoVID-19 in Africa as well as to implement an innovative approach to address unmet needs of diagnostics and health services through mobile platforms delivering laboratory and health services to detect, respond, control and prevent epidemics in Africa focusing on access driven business models, local capacities and sustainability.

Overall objective

The project’s overall objective is to address immediate needs for response and preparedness in Africa for the CoVID-19 and for other epidemic prone diseases (e.g. haemorrhagic fever) in affected and non-affected countries respectively.

Specific objectives

1. To adopt a concerted approach of Africa CDC/WHO Afro/WHO/ECOWAS along with Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) as a regional center designated by the 3 organizations;
2. To build a more sustainable and affordable ecosystem to support health system with mobile platforms for diagnostics and health services provided by Praesens Care (PC).

Activities

1. Establish IPD as the regional hub for first and referral diagnosis with cutting edge technologies in order to accelerate early detection, management and control of outbreak.
2. Upgrade IPD campus’s facilities to welcome and train an increased number of African institution staff
3. Develop a theoretical and hands-on workshop program for training in Surveillance and Epidemics Preparedness, Intelligence, Response and Control as well as on Mobile Lab use and deployment
4. Launch the production of five new Mobile Labs and set up two African Regional Mobile Labs Hub

Achievements

• IPD has improved its biological waste management and biobanking capacities
• Next Generation Sequencing system and Maldi-Toff mass spectra have been delivered to IPD and regularly used
• The new training Centre of Excellence located within IPD is under construction.
• The IPD mobile lab was upgraded and deployed by trained teams for field mission in Senegal
• A training program on genomic algebra is developed and a first training occurred mid-March 2023
• The five new mobile labs are built and ready for shipment