Accueil > News > The CIRMF organizes a training workshop in collaboration with the FAO, the European Union and the Ministry of Health.
The CIRMF organizes a training workshop in collaboration with the FAO, the European Union and the Ministry of Health.

In early December 2009, Dr. Coumba Kane, FAO consultant, and Dr. Kouégnigan Rérambiah, Director of the National Laboratory of Public Health, conducted a mission at the CIRMF to assess the diagnostic chain of H5NI infections. During the assessment, it appeared that there was a problem with the packaging and shipping of samples to the CIRMF for diagnosis. In his mission report, Dr. Coumba asked Dr. Jean-Paul Gonzalez, Director General of the CIRMF, to put together a training workshop at the Centre on packaging and shipping of samples.


The workshop was held from 12 to 14 January 2010 at the CIRMF. It will ultimately lead to a harmonization of the conditions for sampling, packaging and shipping potential H5N1 samples to the CIRMF for diagnosis.

 


A total of eleven participants (Medical Biology technicians from the National Laboratory and hospitals in Franceville, Mouila and Oyem, and from the Virology Laboratory of the University of Health Sciences) took part in the workshop provided by experts from the National Laboratory (Dr. Leonard Kouégnigan Rérambiah and Dr. Armel Mintsa), the FAO (Dr. Ibrahim Salami) and the CIRMF (Dr. Dieudonné Nkoghé Mba, Mélanie Caron and Augustin Mouinga-Ondémé).

 

During the three-day workshop, the participants learned about the latest sampling techniques they will be using on patients through the presentation of the project initiated by the FAO on epidemiological surveillance of the H5N1 influenza and government policy in this area. Focusing on the packaging and shipment of samples to reference laboratories, the trainers taught the participants to use the correct shipping vocabulary and to recognize the different types of packaging needed. The trainers also explained the different diagnostic steps used to process different samples sent to CIRMF.


The participants were encouraged to express their thoughts and opinions on the workshop. Accordingly, they made recommendations for improving the management of potential cases of H5N1 in facilities throughout Gabon.