Summary & Key Points
"AFROSCREEN is a multi-institutional project designed to strengthen genomic sequencing and surveillance capacities in West and Central Africa, as well as Madagascar."
AFROSCREEN is a multi-institutional project designed to strengthen genomic sequencing and surveillance capacities in West and Central Africa and Madagascar. In Côte d’Ivoire, AFROSCREEN involves two international networks: the National Agency for AIDS and Viral Hepatitis Research (ANRS), which includes the PAC-CI Program, the National Institute of Public Hygiene (INHP), and the Molecular Biology Unit (UBM) of the Treichville University Hospital (CHU); and the Pasteur Institutes (IP) network, which includes the Pasteur Institute of Côte d’Ivoire (IPCI).
A delegation of seven Ivorian experts from the ANRS and IP networks working on the AFROSCREEN project traveled to Dakar, Senegal, from June 28 to 30, 2024. They attended a regional symposium in Dakar on the theme: “A genomic surveillance network for emerging pathogens.”
Dr. Moh and Dr. Abo from the PAC-CI Program; Professor Koffi Stéphane and Mr. Kofi Kobina from the UBM of the Treichville CHU; Dr. Amani and Professor Tiembré from the INHP; and Dr. Kadio from the IPCI, along with their Senegalese hosts and experts from eleven other countries, met at the Azalaï Hotel in Dakar to discuss consolidating West and Central African sequencing laboratory networks and develop a strategy to ensure the long-term viability of AFROSCREEN activities.
The discussions focused on the following key areas: facilitating face-to-face dialogue and experience-sharing among West and Central African partners; reviewing scientific and technical achievements since the program’s inception and identifying structuring actions to strengthen the network; prioritizing new challenges and perspectives (scientific and network-level); and discussing synergies with existing regional networks to identify concrete future actions—joint or complementary—for the Pathogen Genomics Initiative (PGI) and AFROSCREEN in genomic surveillance.
The participation of experts from the PAC-CI Program, the UBM of the Treichville CHU, the INHP, and the IPCI included plenary sessions, roundtable discussions, and a poster session. The topics covered emphasized both general knowledge related to sequencing and genomic surveillance and the implementation activities of the AFROSCREEN project, as well as lessons learned since its launch.
(From left to right) Mr. Kofi Kobina, Dr. Amani, and Dr. Abo Yao, posing with one of the three posters presented at the symposium.
While the experts at this regional symposium agreed that the AFROSCREEN project has positively impacted the health systems of the 13 participating countries, they emphasized that its scheduled end on August 31, 2024, risks losing all the progress made. Therefore, participants highlighted the need to extend the project, including adjustments such as greater involvement of social sciences in its activities.
To ensure the long-term viability of AFROSCREEN activities, the experts recommend the following measures: integrating the project’s activities more closely with national health systems to sustain these efforts, engaging social science actors to better understand pathogen emergence, and leveraging the project’s three years of implementation data.
Since its launch in 2021, the AFROSCREEN project has provided laboratories with equipment and reagents, trained laboratory and epidemiology teams, and contributed to establishing and strengthening surveillance systems for SARS-CoV-2 and other priority viruses such as Ebola, Marburg, measles, mpox, dengue, and Rift Valley fever.
