Advanced course on diagnostics

Since it proved impossible to organize an ACDx course in person, two remote events took place instead in 2021 to enable interdisciplinary exchanges to continue.

In March, a special COVID-19 edition was held over three days, with 622 people joining the event from 85 countries. The speakers at this event underlined the importance of making available high-quality tests capable of controlling the epidemic and detecting new variants, as an essential condition for the introduction of effective vaccines. This event was supported by bioMérieux and Cepheid.

On September 15, the global diagnostics community was invited to a conference on the importance of the evolution of the diagnostic tests available on the market, the various means of facilitating access to high-quality tests, and the key role played by genomic surveillance in the control of SARS-CoV-2. 119 participants from 37 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America attended this event, which was led by Dr. Alexandre Costa from UNICEF and Professor Rosanna Peeling from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).

Advanced course on diagnostics for french-speaking african countries

In collaboration with the Institut Pasteur in Dakar, the Mérieux Foundation organized the first edition of the Afro-ACDx course in 2021.

Afro-ACDx is the French-language version adapted to the needs of West and Central African countries and pursues the following objectives: providing leadership training, reinforcing the capacities of laboratories, and encouraging feedback as part of a One Health approach without any boundaries between human and animal health.

Afro-ACDx relies on international ACDx courses, the Global Laboratory Leadership Program (GLLP), and on the expertise of a scientific committee of the main institutions involved in diagnostics in Africa. The first Afro-ACDx class included 29 participants from 15 African countries and took place in Saly, Senegal, from November 21 to 26, 2021.

Advanced course on vaccinology

The 21st edition of the advanced course on vaccinology took place from May 9 to 27, 2021, with a virtual, interactive format supervised at the Les Pensières Center.

This was a first for the ADVAC speakers, who also included the challenges posed by Covid-19 in the course content.

A total of 73 participants from 41 countries took part in 60 conferences, followed by group work, debates, and round table discussions. They joined an active network of more than 1,200 alumni, who regularly get together outside the main meetings on vaccines. Four virtual meetings between former students were organized in 2021 on subjects related to the COVID-19 vaccine.

ADVAC, a benchmark in vaccinology

Acknowledged as the most prestigious course in its field, ADVAC was set up by the Mérieux Foundation and the University of Geneva in 2009. Aimed at managers responsible for making health decisions at a local, national, and international level, it offers a comprehensive approach covering all aspects, from immunology to the development of vaccines and including the social, economic, political, and ethical issues linked with vaccination. ADVAC benefits from grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur, Serum Institute of India, and Takeda. In 2021, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) joined the group of joint sponsors.

Find out more about ADVAC

Course on antimicrobial resistance

Based on the “One Health” principle, the AMR course was developed by the Mérieux Foundation and Paris-Diderot University in 2019 to support the objectives of the WHO Global Action Plan on AMR.

Postponed from 2020, the second edition was held at the Les Pensières Center from November 1 to 5, 2021, bringing together in person 37 students from 20 countries in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Also present were several representatives of organizations involved in the fight against AMR, including the WHO, FAO and OIE. The AMR course benefits from the financial support of bioMérieux and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA).

AMR during a pandemic

On May 28, 2021, the AMR course offered a webinar on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on AMR. The developments presented by the five experts included the increased prescription of antibiotics due to numerous cases of bacterial superinfection and improvements in prevention practices (hand washing, social distancing, vaccination, etc.).

Find out more about AMR course

Global Task Force on Cholera Control (GTFCC)

The GTFCC is a global consortium committed to reducing the number of deaths due to cholera by 90% by 2030.

The Mérieux Foundation has been a partner of this initiative since 2017, alongside more than 50 organizations (WHO, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, WaterAid, etc.) and is involved in aspects associated with knowledge sharing, taking responsibility for the website, and for organizing meetings at the Les Pensières Center.

In 2021, the annual meeting of the GTFCC took place as a hybrid event from June 8 to 10, with more than 230 participants attending in person or joining remotely. The meeting, traditionally organized alongside the World Health Assembly, took place in the form of a webinar attended by 150 people on May 20, 2021.

Vaccine acceptance initiative

Particularly committed to prevention and immunization, the Mérieux Foundation set up the Vaccine Acceptance initiative with the aim of intensifying multisectoral efforts to promote acceptance of vaccination.

In the context of increasing mistrust in vaccines, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, two one-day events dealing with information and misinformation were offered in 2021:

• On March 29, 290 participants attended a webinar on the “Introduction and Acceptance of COVID-19 Vaccines”, during which several international experts presented actual examples of the vaccine being introduced and the associated crisis management aspects;
• On April 15, 250 people attended an event devoted to the management of fake news, considered a major threat to public health in that it can hamper the deployment of prevention strategies.

The Foundation has been involved in rabies control and prevention for many years, supporting initiatives developed to deal with this key topic alongside regional and international partners.

Two meetings to support rabies prevention and control benefited from the Mérieux Foundation’s support in 2021, within the framework of its partnership with the GARC (Global Alliance for Rabies Control).

• Meeting of the MERACON network, the network for rabies control in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and North Africa, supported by the Mérieux Foundation
  Webinar held on February 26, 2021 – 70 participants
• World Rabies Day: highlighting the work of local teams working towards the elimination of rabies worldwide
  Webinar held on September 6 – 301 participants

ZikaPLAN : Zika Preparedness Latin American Network

Delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the ZikaPLAN project has been given a six-month extension, enabling an important stage of training on the diagnosis of arboviruses, of which Zika is one example, to be completed.

Financed by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 program, the initiative adopts a global approach to establish sustainable intervention in Latin America. The Mérieux Foundation, which is one of 25 members of the network, oversees training and the publication of research results.

The training workshop on the diagnosis of arboviruses was organized in March 2021, in partnership with the Institute of Tropical Medicine at Sao Paulo University. Since the end-of-project conference could not take place as planned, the Foundation offered three online events on specific topics to highlight the progress made throughout the four years of the project.

Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness

Having already been put to the test in 2020, the international GloPID-R initiative, whose objective is to provide a joined-up response to emerging epidemics, confirmed in 2021 that it had the capacity to fulfil the task.

In line with its mission, the network’s activities facilitated the coordination of research funding, with several priorities identified: cases of long Covid, monitoring progress in research (identification of 13,000 projects in 160 countries by the end of 2021), and accounting for the specific requirements of low and middle-income countries. Scientific recommendations and considerations were also published, contributing towards future decision-making in the field of Covid-19 research.

The Mérieux Foundation coordinates the global activities of the secretariat and the GloPID-R network in partnership with the University of Oxford, which oversees the scientific aspects. Three new members joined the GloPID-R initiative in 2021: in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Rwanda.

The 2021 edition of the Mekong Hepatitis Symposium was broadcast from the Les Pensières Center on November 26. This regional network gets together each year to make progress in dealing with viral hepatitis B and C in the Mekong Basin, a region at the center of major outbreaks of these infections worldwide.

Two key issues were discussed: the prevention and treatment of hepatitis B and the challenges involved in eradicating hepatitis C by 2030, to comply with WHO objectives.

This event received operational support from the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), the Lyon Cancer Research Center, the University of Sorbonne Paris Nord, the Center Infectiology, Lao-Christophe Mérieux and the University of Chiang Mai in Thailand.

The Mérieux Foundation has been participating in and supporting the Asia Dengue Voice and Action task force (ADVA) working group since 2013 to advocate in favor of the prevention and control of dengue in Asia, an endemic region with a strong prevalence of dengue. Throughout 2021, five webinars were organized to deal with key subjects on the dengue situation in Asia and the contextual challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The themes of the webinars were as follows:

• Managing patients who are seriously ill with dengue – intensive adult and pediatric care – January.
• Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global dengue situation – March
• World Dengue Day – forum on cross-sector synergies – June
• Pre-vaccination screening for dengue – what is the next stage? – September