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Unpredictable and often deadly, epidemics occur regularly throughout the world. To better respond to them, Epicentre and MSF are training MSF doctors and nurses from March 15 to 19 to improve the quality of their interventions in the field, but also to give them the information and tools to be attentive and reactive to diseases with epidemic potential.

In Niger, the COVID-19 pandemic has enabled the deployment of the Alert-CoVid-19 platform, which can be used for diseases with a recurrent resurgence such as measles and meningococcal meningitis, and has accelerated the setting up of a molecular biology laboratory (PCR) in the Epicentre Center in Maradi.

Tuberculosis, particularly among HIV-positive people, is still too widely under-diagnosed and therefore untreated. It is the main cause of death among people living with HIV. Why is it so? Because some diagnostic tests remain difficult to access in resource-limited countries, due to their technical nature or cost; others lack sensitivity. With the support of the French National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis (ANRS), MSF and Epicentre are evaluating a new test –FujiLAM –to diagnose tuberculosis in HIV-positive people in South Africa, Uganda, Mozambique and Kenya. According to the first study results, the FujiLAM has high sensitivity in HIV-positive people with CD4<350 and it is easy to use and well accepted by test users and patients.

Faced with logistical difficulties associated with PCR tests, the gold standard for diagnosing COVID-19 cases, MSF, the Cameroon Ministry of Public Health, and Epicentre are showing that rapid serological and antigenic tests are a reliable and easier alternative to deploy in resource-limited Environment to enable early case management and limit the spread of the pandemic. Yap Boum, Epicentre's representative in Africa, explains.