The commissioning on July 1, 2016, in Yaounde, was carried out by Cameroonian and French ministers.
Malaria drug resistance and development efforts in the country received fillip on July 1, 2016, with the inauguration in Yaounde of the state-of-the-art Malaria Research Laboratory by Centre Pasteur Cameroun, CPC. The commissioning was carried out by the Minister of Public Health, André Mama Fouda and André Vallini, the French Secretary of State for Development and the Francophonie.
André Mama Fouda noted that malaria remains a major concern in Cameroon. In order to fight it, over 20 million mosquito insecticide-treated bed nets have been distributed to the public since 2011. Other measures include the intermittent treatment of women as from four months of pregnancy, and the free treatment for children less than five years old. As a result, he pointed out, malaria mortality has reduced to 27 per cent. Stakeholders are generally agreed that the fight against malaria in Africa is going on well, said André Vallini. However, it is not time to sit back, but rather invest more public money in malaria research in order to eliminate the disease, he added.
“With all hands on deck, the fight against malaria will be won. Much has been achieved in health funding, but much remains to be done,” Vallini concluded. Dr Guy Vernet, Director, Centre Pasteur Cameroun, disclosed that the new laboratory covers over 3,000 square metres, with a one-storey building constructed and other facilities refurbished. The project received 138 million FCFA French funding, with Rotary International supporting with equipment. Dr Lawrence Ayong, the Service Head for the Malaria Research Laboratory, said the facility boasts equipment for scanning parasites in order to develop vaccines or drugs.
Other equipment include immune-fluorescent microscopes to detect parasites in the bio-safety Level 2 laboratory. This enables staff to grow parasites to see if they are sensitive to available drugs or not; while high-performance molecular Biology tools determine if parasites are resistant or not.“Drug resistance is major problem in malaria-endemic areas. As researchers, our duty is to develop new tools to meet these challenges,” Dr Ayong explained. The newly inaugurated Centre Pasteur Cameroun Malaria Research Laboratory is a national reference centre. It is part of the network of 33 Centre Pasteur institutes in the world. Seven students have so far carried out Master’s degree research in the laboratory since 2012.
