Access to diagnosis
With the Center of Infectiology Lao Christophe Mérieux, we help the Minister of Health improve the care of people living with HIV/AIDS and hepatitis by providing quality testing services.
The Center for Infectiology Lao Christophe Mérieux is a partner of national HIV and tuberculosis programs and has been recognized as a reference laboratory for its monitoring of patients living with HIV and chronic viral hepatitis. It also has a mobile BSL3 laboratory for the diagnosis of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and other advanced tests.
In 2019, the Rodolphe Mérieux Laboratory of the Center of Infectiology Lao Christophe Mérieux received a double accreditation for its HIV viral load testing activities: one based on the ISO 15189:2012 standards on quality management and the other on the ISO 15190:2003 standards on biosafety management. It is the first laboratory in the country to receive accreditation for these standards.
We have also worked for a number of years with the Claude Bernard Lyon I University and the Hospices Civils of Lyon to improve healthcare in the Khammouane province, particularly at the Thakhek hospital. We work to support the Lab Kham project, building a network of laboratories in the Khammouane province, in conjunction with Thakhek’s provincial hospital, the district hospitals and the Provincial Health Directorate in order to strengthen the province’s laboratory system, develop continuing education for health care professionals and improve the overall quality of the province’s laboratories.
In partnership with the National Center for Laboratory and Epidemiology (NCLE), we participated in the development of a national action plan for the training of laboratory personnel and the implementation of training courses. We assisted the NCLE in defining national training priorities for laboratory professionals and a national training plan was drafted. As a continuation, we are working to strengthen the capacities of laboratories in Laos in order to enable quality analyses on antibiotic resistance (AMR). The project, supported by the Fleming Fund, consists of developing training activities for laboratory personnel in the field of AMR control in the country.
In the province of Bolikhamxay, a new provincial hospital has been built thanks to the support of the Luxembourg cooperation. This hospital includes a medical analysis laboratory, the launch of which we are supporting, with funding from LuxDev, by providing staff training and implementing new analysis techniques.
Enhancing research capabilities
As part of the GABRIEL network, Lao researchers are working in several research projects:
- Capacity Strengthening for Surveillance and Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Variants
- Support to Young Researchers through Doctoral Fellowships
Knowledge-sharing
The Center of Infectiology Lao Christophe Mérieux organizes several practical workshops and themed symposiums (molecular biology, antimicrobial resistance, hepatitis, HIV, bioquality, biosafety, etc.), making it a key asset for our knowledge-sharing activities.
Since 2015, we hold the Mekong Hepatitis Symposium there with 80 health professionals and researchers from Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal, Mongolia and France in attendance.
In 2020, due to the COVID-19 sanitary crisis, an online version of the Symposium was organized simultaneously in three countries (Laos, Cambodia and Thailand) with online international experts presentations.
