PROG17-21_02OC1_Renforcement institutionnel de Laboratoire de Référence des Mycobactéries (LRM) pour des services de qualité et l’amélioration des soins de santé de qualité au niveau national et régional, sur les mycobactéries et autres bactéries cliniques

Building on ongoing collaborations, several units of the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) will collaborate with one Beninese partner institution, aiming to increase local capacity for research, and application of its results to improved health management. The project will support direct research activities to increase staff capacities, and the application of results into national- and regional healthcare practice. The promotor, Prof Dr Dissou Affolabi, is based at the Laboratoire de Référence des Mycobactéries (LRM). Besides mycobacterial diagnostic services, training of researchers, and upgrade of LRM to a supra-national reference laboratory, the programme will reinforce Prof Affolabi’s work on antibiotic resistance at the Centre National Hospitalier Universitaire (CNHU). Expected laboratory results focus on improved quality, including formal accreditation of LRM and supervision of laboratories in other countries. In addition, the creation of a grant administration office will strengthen the general management of the laboratory research activities, including the quality of the accounting.