EVAg

In 2005, Fondation Mérieux established the Charles Mérieux Centre of Infectiology in Bamako (CICM), with the aim of fighting against infectious diseases in Mali.

The Centre participates in the West African Laboratory Network’s (RESAOLAB) activities and has enabled the local scientific and medical community to benefit from a quality tool in biological diagnostics.

In partnership with the government of Mali and the Fondation Christophe et Rodolphe Mérieux, Fondation Mérieux has enabled the local scientific and medical community to benefit from a quality tool in biological diagnostics.

The center consists of a medical analysis laboratory, the Rodolphe Mérieux Laboratory, where daily examinations in clinical biology and bacteriology (mycobacteria), haematology, serology (toxoplasmosis, HIV), parasitology (malaria), and biochemistry and molecular biology (HIV viral load, molecular diagnosis of tuberculosis) are performed.

The centre is also equipped with several class rooms and laboratories where training is held for biologists and biotechnologists working in the laboratories.

Since 2011, the Charles Mérieux Centre bears the name 'Centre d’Infectiologie Charles Mérieux' (CICM). Within the CICM, the Rodolphe Mérieux Laboratory has the infrastructure and equipment to truly make it an applied research unit, carrying out research projects as part of the GABRIEL Network. The research topics of the CICM are:

• Tuberculosis and MDR and XDR surveillance. We are conducting passive surveillance study of MDR and XDR in TB patients in Mali
• Hepatitis B and C: CICM is conducting studies on viral load and genotype among blood donors in Bamako and Tombouctou. This studies is done in collaboration with the ministry of health, and the CHU Gabriel Touré.
• Antimicrobial resistance.
  • Samples from genitourinary tract, blood cultures, and cerebrospinalfluid are examined for screening of multidrug resistant strains of bacteria, especially the enterobacteriacae.
  • Study of antimicrobial profiles in Intensive Care Unit of CHU Gabriel Touré
• Hemorrhagic Viral Fevers: We are surveilling causes of fever of unknown origin in children 1-15 years old. We are also investigating the virome of bats and rodents and the spectrum of viral respiratory diseases in Mali.

The Centre participates in the West African Laboratory Network’s (RESAOLAB) activities, and collaborate with many institutions in Mali and oversea .