Professor Souleymane Diallo, the director of the Centre, and Lorène Ladan-Fofana, the Mérieux Foundation’s West Africa manager, presented a medical laboratory project called LABOMEDCAM, that was set up in partnership with Monaco’s Office of International Cooperation and Development, as well as the projects of the Centre of Infectiology and Fondation Mérieux.
Prince Albert II was accompanied by his delegation and the Consulate General of Monaco on his visit to the Charles Mérieux Centre of Infectiology in Bamako on 15 February.
Professor Souleymane Diallo, the Centre’s director, presented the work of the Charles Mérieux Centre of Infectiology as well as the LABOMEDCAMP project, introduced as part of partnership signed in 2010 between Fondation Mérieux and Monaco’s Office of International Cooperation and Development.
This project was implemented in partnership with the NGO ‘Santé Sud’, which is working to improve healthcare in Mali through the set up of 9 new laboratories in 3 pilot regions, then integrate them in national quality control and epidemiological surveillance programmes.
Lorène Ladan-Fofana, the Mérieux Foundation’s West Africa manager, presented the Mérieux Foundation’s activities in West Africa, and Louis Delorme, Project Manager, presented the West African Laboratory Network project (RESAOLAB), whose objective is to strengthen the laboratory sector in three West African countries: Senegal, Burkina Faso and Mali, through the intermediate of three components:
- Continuious training
- Strengthening of quality assurance
- Strengthening of the epidemiological surveillance system
After these three promising projects were presented, there was a visit of the Training Centre and the Rodolphe Mérieux Laboratory.
Collaboration between Fondation Mérieux and Monaco’s Office of International Cooperation and Development has helped implement projects in public health; a field within which the Mérieux Foundation and Monaco’s Office of International Cooperation play an important role.