Senegal recorded two cases of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) at the end of April 2023.
Senegalese authorities rose early to avoid the Covid-19 syndrome. The diagnosis of a patient, hospitalized in April at the Dalal Jamm hospital in the Dakar suburbs, showed the presence of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF), a severe viral disease belonging to the family of emerging and re-emerging diseases. The death of the patient led the Ministry of Health to adopt a maximum alert level.
As when the first case of Covid-19 was discovered in the country in March 2020, the ‘Centre des opérations d’urgence sanitaire’ (Health Emergency Operations Center, COUS) was activated to provide a coordinated and effective response to the CCHF attack. As a result, a second case of Crimea-Congo was recorded some ten days later in the north of the country, a case that was eventually cured, recalled Dr. Boly Diop, Director of Epidemiological Surveillance and Vaccine Response.
Despite the Ministry of Health’s considerable resources, the ‘Institut de recherche en santé, de surveillance epidémiologique et de formation’ (Institute for Health Research, Epidemiological Surveillance and Training, Iressef) is also making its contribution, says its president, epidemiologist Professor Souleymane Mboup. His
laboratory, based in Diamniadio, some thirty kilometers from Dakar, has advanced techniques for the early detection of emerging and re-emerging diseases such as CCHF.
“One of Iressef’s missions is to do a better job of detecting emerging and re-emerging diseases. We have particularly strengthened our capacity. We have sent many of our agents elsewhere to gain experience. We’ve really equipped ourselves. We have all the necessary equipment, as we did for Covid-19, to deal with Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever,” Professor Mboup announced on Wednesday May 24 during a reception hosted by Princess Astrid of Belgium at the laboratory’s headquarters, which was inaugurated in June 2017.
Speaking to the press who had come to cover the ceremony, the founding president of Iressef said that the “economic” visit to Senegal by the sister of the current King of the Belgians, Philippe, had been used to
discuss projects between his center and Belgian partners, dating back to the time of Dr. Peter Piot, when this former executive director of UNAIDS “was at the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine (IMTA).
For the future, the flagship project involves setting up a “bio-production center” in Senegal, through the firm Bio-Sourcing, notes the 71-year-old Senegalese scientist. “It’s a fairly simple but innovative project. It’s about replacing big factories with more natural approaches, in particular pharmaceutical goat farms that could
help manufacture monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of cancer and diabetes, for example. It’s a very innovative prospect,” Professor Mboup explains.
The president of Iressef also indicated that his institution, which is “not-for-profit” and whose aim is to “support the country’s health policies”, was reflecting on the possibilities “of increasing its testing capacity.”
ODL/ac/fss/abj/APA