Ivory Coast : Institut Pasteur celebrates its 50th anniversary

The Institut Pasteur de Côte d’Ivoire (IPCI) organised from 02 to 06 May 2023 in Abidjan-Cocody, the festivities marking its fiftieth anniversary under the theme “50 years at the service of the population: challenges and innovation”.

Divine KANANYET/news.abidjan.net

It is a fiftieth anniversary organised around a scientific symposium, an open day and a sports day, to show the missions of the IPCI in Côte d’Ivoire and in the sub-region through its various fields of competence and activities. “There can be no fiftieth anniversary of the Institut Pasteur without a scientific symposium insofar as this scientific symposium is an opportunity for the institution’s researchers to present the various results of their work. Indeed, the heart of the Institut Pasteur of Côte d’Ivoire is based on scientific research,” said Prof Ketté Hortense, Scientific Director
of the Institut Pasteur of Côte d’Ivoire. This ceremony was an opportunity to show the missions of the IPCI in our country and in the sub-region through its various areas of competence and activities in Côte d’Ivoire. It was also an opportunity to take stock of the past fifty years, to identify the successes and challenges, to open the institution to the general public, to make proposals for the future and to determine the strategies that will enable the institution to face the challenges of the next decades. Thus, since its creation in 1972, the IPCI, under the supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, has become a major player in epidemiological surveillance in Côte d’Ivoire and in the region. It has hosted several technological platforms in biology and molecular genetics, as well as the regional bio-bank of ECOWAS countries since 2018. To date, the IPCI has also confirmed nearly 19 priority diseases out of the 23 that Côte d’Ivoire monitors. “Our country monitors 23 priority diseases and the IPCI confirms 19. The IPCI hosts several technological platforms of biology and molecular genetics and since 2018 houses the regional bio-bank of ECOWAS countries. It is also a member of the ECOWAS West African Health Organisation (WAHO) laboratory network and hosts several WHO-recognised laboratories,” said Professor Mireille Dosso. Specialised laboratories There is no shortage of difficulties
in this heavy task of support. In recent years, the IPCI has had to deal with several epidemics of meningitis, cholera, viral hepatitis,
HIV, avian influenza, dengue fever (the fifth of which occurred in 2022), Ebola and Lassa epidemics, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic. “The Institute has carried out 1.3 million RT PCR tests since 11 March 2020, the date of diagnosis of the first case of Covid-19 in Côte d’Ivoire,” she said. Organised into 10 departments, 30 specialised units and laboratories, as well as five transversal support units, the Institut Pasteur has a staff of 235 men and women, including 90 researchers, 80 engineers and technicians from 20 different specialities,
and administrative and support staff. For this year, Prof. Mireille Dosso announced that by the end of December 2023, the IPCI will have specialised laboratories at levels P3 and P4, the highest level of biosafety, allowing the study of pathogens that are highly dangerous for humans, fauna, flora or the environment, such as Ebola.