The Africam-Guinea project launched to prevent the emergence of zoonotic diseases from local to global

In the fight against diseases of zoonotic origin and the international PREZODE (Preventing Zoonotic Disease Emergence) initiative, the AfriCam Guinea project was officially launched on July 12 in Conakry, an event organized by CIRAD, IRD and Guinean partners, notably the Center for Research and Training in Infectiology of Guinea (CERFIG).

Installed in Guinea under the patronage of the Guinea Infectiology Research and Training Center and several Guinean partners (Universities, Institutes, etc.), the AfriCam project will deploy early detection systems for the emergence of zoonoses for several years in the countries of the South.

A project worth millions of euros

Funded by the French Development Agency (AFD) to the tune of 10 million euros over three years (2023-2025), co-piloted by Cirad and IRD, of which Cameroon, Guinea, Senegal, Cambodia and Madagascar are the beneficiary countries.

The general objective of Africam Guinea is to develop and strengthen surveillance capacities for priority zoonotic diseases such as Lassa fever, Covid-19, Ebola, Marburg, etc.“The Africam project is an operational research project which aims to strengthen the national “one health” platform and all initiatives within our country, to ensure prevention, early detection and rapid response in the event of the emergence of infectious diseases which could be epidemic,”said Professor Abdoulaye Touré, Director of the Guinea Infectiology Research and Training Center.

Favor of decompartmentalization

The complexity of the problems facing the world calls for research focused on major and priority issues at the scale of countries and regions, in favor of decompartmentalization of disciplines and the recruitment of scientists with more holistic and interdisciplinary approaches. AFD also wishes to take the co-construction of research questions further with societal stakeholders.

“The Africam project is part of the PREZODE initiatives which aim to ultimately break down barriers between sectors and disciplines to create a global approach to zoonotic diseases. This is the idea of ​​better understanding the emergence of these diseases and therefore having an effective surveillance system in the event of the resumption of other pandemics. The involvement of local populations in this project is a specificity of the project since its aim is to dialogue with them, to better understand their constraints and in the end this project was co-constructed with the local populations., explained Nicolas Lecrivain, Deputy Director of the French Development Agency in Conakry.

Monitoring and preventing the risks of diseases with epidemic potential is one of the difficult tasks to achieve. This is why AfriCam is of capital importance for the five countries carrying out the project. Guinea has also become a country with emerging cyclical epidemics.

“On prevention, it is from this perspective that our country is associated with this AfriCam project which fights against emerging epidemics, all health actors must focus on accelerated surveillance at all levels with a global approach. All research stakeholders will work in an open-compartmentalized manner to be able to understand the complexity of certain global and specific diseases.”, specified Professor Moustapha Keita Diop, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Sonfonia and also an associated researcher at CERFIG.

Sustainable solutions

In terms of methodology, the AfriCam Guinea project aims to be participatory, in order to sustainably anchor prevention solutions in local contexts. The activities will thus be carried out by a large consortium of partners bringing together public and private research operators, universities, civil society organizations and competent authorities.

Amadou Dari Diallo