National Ethics Committees are key actors of the research and civil society world, responsible for assessing complex situations with regard to individual rights and the general interest both in the normal course as well as in times of crisis. When a clinical trial or any research involving individual is conducted, they are responsible for ensuring that research participants are protected and...

During a wave of expansion that began 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, Bantu-speaking populations – today some 310 million people – gradually left their original homeland of West-Central Africa and traveled to the eastern and southern regions of the continent. Using data from a vast genomic analysis of more than 2,000 samples taken from individuals in 57 populations throughout Sub-Saharan Africa,...

The Agence française de développement (AFD) and ANRS | Maladies infectieuses émergentes, in partnership with the Institut Pasteur, IRD, and laboratories across 13 African countries, are launching the joint AFROSCREEN project. This project meets an urgent need for surveillance of the development of SARS-CoV-2 variants and other emerging pathogens by bolstering laboratory genomic sequencing...

Fondation Mérieux and Institut Pasteur signed September 12, 2014 a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This MOU serves to set forth the areas of collaboration in response to the Ebola virus disease (EVD) and other hemorrhagic fever diseases in Western Africa through three ways: Deployment of a new mobile laboratory, dedicated to detection and identification of infectious diseases caused by risk...

Buruli ulcer is a necrotizing skin disease that is very disabling, caused by bacteria that inhabit aquatic environment. It is rife in several regions of the world and is developing at a disturbing rate in West Africa. Researchers at the Institut Pasteur and Inserm, working together with university and institute teams from the Institut Pasteur International Network, recently proved that the...

The Agence française de développement (AFD) and ANRS | Maladies infectieuses émergentes, in partnership with the Institut Pasteur, IRD, and laboratories across 13 African countries, are launching the joint AFROSCREEN project. This project meets an urgent need for surveillance of the development of SARS-CoV-2 variants and other emerging pathogens by bolstering laboratory genomic sequencing...

COTONOU, MARSEILLE, PARIS – The decision by the World Health Organization to recognize snakebite envenomation in Category A of its list of Neglected Tropical Diseases provides a welcome opportunity to strengthen snakebite care strategies, particularly in Africa. More than one million snakebites occur each year in sub-Saharan Africa. Envenomations are estimated to cause 25,000-30,000 deaths...

Jean-Philippe Chippaux is a hands-on guy. Throughout his career, he has contributed to the prevention and treatment of several neglected tropical diseases in a number of countries in Africa and Latin America. Alongside this work for the French Research Institute for Development (IRD), he has devoted his attention over the past four decades to studying snakes and snake bites. Although his...

When the body receives an injury to the skin, a signal is sent to the brain, which generates a sensation of pain. Teams led by Priscille Brodin in Lille[1] and Laurent Marsollier in Angers[2] have studied lesions in patients with Buruli ulcer, a tropical disease. In an article published in the journal Cell, they show that, despite the extent and severity of these wounds, they are less painful...