Fondation Mérieux plays an important role in the academic training of health students in developing countries, helping make decisions on lesson content as well as creating a teaching body made up of experts in the field.
Fondation Mérieux has thus contributed to the DESin Biological Medicine at the University of Phnom Penh in Cambodia and the set up of a study course in pharmaceuticals in Antananarivo in Madagascar.
DES postgraduate degree in Medical Biology in Cambodia
Following the introduction of new teaching material in the 1st and 2nd years of pharmaceutical studies in Cambodia, Fondation Mérieux and Fondation Pierre Fabre are committed to the addition of a third year with the creation of the DES in Biological Medicine.
This schooling is aimed at training chemists and doctors so that they acquire the necessary skills needed to in the ratification and interpretation of biological analyses.
Since its creation in 2004, the DEShas trained around 5 to 10 students per year. The course lasts for two years and is based around the following modules:
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Biochemistry
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Hematology
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Bacteriology
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Virology
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Immunology
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Parasitology
International expert volunteers have come together to ensure these training modules go smoothly. The best students are then invited to further their training abroad in collaboration with laboratory workers and research partners from Fondation Mérieux network. On returning to Cambodia, they can then start to work as lab technicians or researchers themselves.
Faculty of Pharmacy in Madagascar
Since 2007, in collaboration with the University of Antananarivo and various other partners both technical and financial (Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, Rhône-Alpes region, Fondation Pierre Fabre, cooperation Franco-Madagascan…), Fondation Mérieux has been supporting a pharmaceutical study course in Antananarivo (1st University in the Indian Ocean). The various actors both private and public, French and Madagascan have dedicated themselves to improving university training in terms of content and durability, as well as the country’s infrastructure.
The main objective of the programme is to respond to the shortage of pharmacists in Madagascar (in 2007, one pharmacist for 70 000 people, only 5 pharmacists in Madagascar’s public sector).
The programme began in 2006 with students from the first year of the pharmaceutical studies promotion effort being expected to finish the programme at the end of 2010 after 5 years. The main objective of the programme is to create an onsite hospital pharmacy.
Fondation Mérieux has committed its support, both technical and financial, to the definition and monitoring of studies and to the training of future Madagascan pharmaceutics.
Within the framework of training and the sharing of information, la Fondation Mérieux also supports medical students during their theses or masters degrees (themes : infectious diseases and public health).
Epidemiology Training
The partnership of NTI-Global Health Security Initiative, the Fondation Mérieux and Edinburgh University allowed the set up in 2008 of training courses from a distance, ending in a qualification in human and animal health. These training courses are aimed at veterinary and epidemiology students in their third year in Cambodia and Laos, and are designed to offer high level training without forcing students to travel abroad. Developing the qualifications of human and veterinary health professionals in the field of environmental health and other associated areas, is essentially the key to reinforcing capacities in the fight against infectious diseases in the region.
