Mali

Throughout security issues, political instability and social crisis, we have never ceased our actions in this country in the heart of the Sahel. Through the Charles Mérieux Center for Infectious Disease, we increase access to medical care for all by offering high-quality clinical diagnosis.

Overview

  • First Mérieux Foundation mission in 2003
  • Mérieux Foundation office: 1 expatriate and 5 Malian employees
  • Charles Mérieux Center for Infectious Disease and Rodolphe Mérieux Laboratory (2005) in Bamako, member of the GABRIEL network, and ISO15189:2012 certified, designated by the Ministry of Health and Social Development for the diagnosis of COVID-19
  • The Rodolphe Mérieux Laboratory’s research focus: tuberculosis, emerging and re-emerging pathogens, antimicrobial resistance
  • RESAOLAB network member since 2009

Situation

Access to diagnosis

The Rodolphe Mérieux Laboratory of Bamako is located within the Charles Mérieux Center for Infectious Disease. In 2020, the laboratory received accreditation on the ISO 15189:2012 standard, for its activities in biology, haematology, infectious serology and bacteriology.

In 2015, thanks to funding from Fondation Christophe et Rodolphe Mérieux, the Charles Mérieux Center for Infectious Disease in Bamako was equipped with a BSL3 laboratory for the diagnosis of and research on tuberculosis and dangerous viruses.

As part of a Franco-German collaboration in the fight against Ebola, a mobile laboratory for the diagnosis of infectious agents was inaugurated at the Charles Mérieux Center for Infectious Disease in 2015. It strengthens the capacities of the Malian healthcare system to respond to the spread of highly infectious diseases and is intended to be transported to remote regions in the event of a suspected epidemic. In 2016, as part of the creation of the G5 Sahel Biosecurity Network (Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Chad), experts from the countries involved were included in training on the mobile laboratory. The objective is to form a rapid response team made up of scientists from the 5 Sahel countries who are qualified to work in the mobile laboratory. Since 2018, a second mobile laboratory has been handed over to the G5 Sahel Biosecurity Network. The project is supported by the Ministries of Health of the five G5 Sahel countries and the technical support of the West African Health Organization and the World Health Organisation. In 2020, the Malian mobile laboratory was deployed for the first time in a real situation to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in Timbuktu and Mopti.

In Mali, we participate in several collaborative initiatives aimed at improving access to diagnosis for the greatest number of people, such as the LABOMEDCAMP project which aims to improve the quality of infectious disease diagnosis at front-line health centers.

REDISSE

Mali is part of the REDISSE Project (Regional Disease Surveillance Systems Enhancement) to improve disease surveillance system. Funded by the World Bank through the West African Health Organization, the project aims to reinforce health district laboratories’ capacities in the 15 ECOWAS countries, in order to :

  • Bolster the laboratory diagnosis and confirmation skills of laboratory managers
  • Improve epidemiological surveillance and the response capacity of district laboratories

With the Centre for International Cooperation in Health and Development (CCISD), we were mandated to reinforce health districts’ integrated disease surveillance capacities.

RESAOLAB

Mali is one of the 7 members of the West African Network of Medical Biology Laboratories (RESAOLAB) which we created with the ministries of health of participating countries. As part of this network, it participates annually in training, laboratory supervision, quality assurance and external quality assessment.

Since 2010, we conducted several renovation projects for training infrastructures: regional hospital laboratories in Mopti and Kayes, the National Training Institute in Health Sciences in Sikasso and Kayes, the National External Quality Assessment Unit at the National Institute of Public Health Research. In Kayes, this was carried out with the support of the Department of International Cooperation of the Principality of Monaco.

We also take part in the Tackling Deadly Diseases in Africa/L’Afrique contre les épidémies (TDDA/ACE) project, which aims to strengthen health systems and institutions in Mali, Niger, Côte d’Ivoire, Chad, Cameroon, and Uganda to enable them to improve global health security by reducing the impact of disease outbreaks, epidemics, and other public health threats throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

Enhancing research capabilities

In Mali, we are involved in a project to evaluate a new rapid diagnostic test for sickle cell disease in children under 6 months of age. This project is supported by the Pierre Fabre Foundation.

We are involved in several research programs carried out at the Charles Mérieux Center for Infectious Disease in Mali:

  • Monitoring the etiology of acute or persistent febrile syndromes with the aim of improving diagnosis, prevention and treatment,
  • Evaluating the hepatitis B viral load in blood donors in Bamako,
  • Studying the dynamics and the composition of intestinal microbiota in children in a pediatric setting in Mali,
  • A research cooperation agreement signed in 2015 by the Mérieux Foundation, the Charles Mérieux Center for Infectious Disease in Mali and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
  • Epidemiological surveillance of emerging and re-emerging pathogens

NOSO-COR

Following the COVID-19 epidemic, we took part in the NOSO-COR project, a prospective non-interventional hospital-based study whose objective is to describe and document cases of COVID-19, nosocomial transmission in hospitals and infection prevention and control practices and policies in hospitals. In Mali, this study is implemented at the Charles Mérieux Center for Infectious Disease of Bamako and at the Point G University Hospital.

Knowledge-sharing

To strengthen the theoretical and practical skills of West African laboratory technicians, we created the BAMS course (Bachelor in Applied Medical Biology), in 2007, in partnership with the School of Biology, Biochemistry and Biotechnology (ESTBB) of the Catholic University of Lyon. Since 2018, BAMS officially become a Master’s program at the University of Bamako.

We also participate in the improvement of the initial training of pharmacist-biologists in the West African region by providing training grants with the IPHARMEX association.

A partnership with the SMARA association (Santé Mali Rhône-Alpes) also makes it possible to set up specialized medicine missions (pediatrics, dermatology and ophthalmology), training for general practitioners, support for health centers in three districts of the Timbuktu region in northern Mali, and support for medical students.

Support for mothers and children

Thanks to the support of Fondation Christophe and Rodolphe Mérieux, we contributed to the construction of the Youssouf Issabré Maternity Hospital in the Sirakoro Meguetana health area, on the outskirts of Bamako, in order to improve reception conditions for women and newborns.

We support the work of Samusocial Mali, in the fight against social exclusion and the marginalization of young people in big cities in developing countries.  we contribute to health education activities, as well as to the operation of the mobile aid and health care services.

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