By Sola Charles
The Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) has partnered with the African Risk Capacity, ARC, AfriCatalyst, and the West African Health Organisation, WAHO, to strengthen outbreak preparedness and response to high-consequence infectious diseases in West Africa. The targeted diseases include Ebola, Marburg, Lassa fever, Meningococcal meningitis, Monkeypox, and other emerging pathogens of concern.
A statement by the IPD said that the partnership will also evaluate the capacities for epidemiological surveillance and laboratory diagnostics for viral haemorrhagic fevers in the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS.
Further, it will model the risk of new and re-emerging outbreaks and epidemics in the region and put in place epidemic contingency plans and countermeasures.
As a WHO collaborating centre for arboviruses, the IPD will provide expert opinion to enhance the capacity of the programme to evaluate surveillance and laboratory capacities in the region.
It will also support the development of realistic outbreak scenarios deployed to prepare ECOWAS member states in their training and preparedness for response and national contingency plans.
The CEO, of IPD, Dr. Amadou Alpha Sall, noted: “The Alliance represents a unique partnership of leading African institutions with a global outlook that brings expertise in science, policy, governance, and finance to advance global public health security through epidemic intelligence and outbreak response.
“As the project meets its goals, the Alliance will represent a critically important convergence of complementary expertise to promote health security in Africa and mitigate the risk of global threats spreading to and from the region.”
On his part, the Chief Executive Officer at AfriCatalyst, Daouda Sembene, noted: “We look forward to supporting the critical work being undertaken by ARC, WAHO, and IPD in the context of the Alliance to strengthen epidemic preparedness and response in our region. We’re thrilled to be partnering with the BMGF as we fulfill this unique responsibility.”
United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and ARC Group Director General, Ibrahima Cheikh Diong, said ARC will continue to develop Outbreaks & Epidemics risk insurance products to enable early containment of epidemic-prone diseases and respond to acute public health emergencies.
The IPD is rising to the challenge of scaling new innovations, tools, and systems to contribute to the global effort to end epidemics and prevent pandemics.
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