The world is undergoing profound changes, leading to crises, which multiply in all regions. Whether political, security-related, demographic, economic and climatic in nature, all crises contribute to worsening the health conditions of affected populations, creating an ideal breeding ground of development and spread for epidemics. Low-income countries are the hardest-hit by these increasingly complex contexts, with mothers and children at the forefront.

This is why the Mérieux Foundation, an independent foundation with public interest status, has been fighting infectious diseases affecting vulnerable populations in resource-limited countries since its creation in 1967.

Operating directly in more than 25 countries, it is committed to strengthening local capacities, particularly in clinical biology, in order to improve access to care, surveillance and response to epidemics.

The foundation works side-by-side with local partners and builds networks to mobilize the skills and energies necessary to implement effective and sustainable actions.

It is particularly involved in the public health issues that have the greatest impact in the countries where it operates, such as antimicrobial resistance, tuberculosis, acute respiratory infections, HIV, and emerging pathogens.

Committed to a global health approach, the Mérieux Foundation goes beyond its expertise in biology to include the main and most impactful issues that influence the well-being of the populations in the countries where it operates.

The foundation works in particular with the support of the Fondation Christophe et Rodolphe Mérieux, an independent family foundation under the aegis of the Institut de France, to sustainably improve the quality of life and health of mothers and children.

The Mérieux Foundation’s action focuses on four main objectives:

• Increasing vulnerable populations’ access to diagnostics by strengthening clinical laboratories in national healthcare systems.
• Enhancing local applied research capabilities by creating Rodolphe Mérieux Laboratories transferred to local partners, training researchers and developing collaborative programs.
• Encouraging knowledge-sharing and public health initiatives working with Les Pensières Center for Global Health.
• Improving conditions for mothers and children taking a global health approach.

One of the main pillars of the Mérieux Foundation lies in its capacity for direct intervention in the field, from the network of 18 laboratories of excellence built at the source of outbreak-prone regions, to the presence of local teams in 14 countries. To carry out its mission, the Mérieux Foundation can rely on its expertise, its great experience in the field and its local partnerships built up over more than 15 years of international development.

2022 was the year that war returned to Europe. Meanwhile, the situation in some of the countries in which we have been active for several years (Haiti, Myanmar, Lebanon, Mali, Burkina Faso) continues to be of concern. Against this increasingly complex geopolitical backdrop, our Foundation continues to stay the course, pursuing its mission as part of a global approach to healthcare involving our partner laboratories, our projects supporting vulnerable mothers and their children, and our initiatives encouraging the necessary sharing of knowledge.

Thanks to this network of laboratories, we have continued the work we started with our partners in Africa. In Morocco, for example, a P3 laboratory specializing in the diagnosis of mycobacterial infections, including TB, has been set up at the Institut Pasteur in Casablanca. In Burkina Faso, a microbiology laboratory has been built at the Bobo Dioulasso University Hospital. In DRC, the INRB-Goma Rodolphe Mérieux Laboratory has just been opened. And finally, in Cameroon, there is now a Hygiene and Environment laboratory at the Pasteur Center in Yaoundé.

The Mérieux Foundation has also intervened in Europe for the first time, providing support in Moldova. We are helping this country on the border with Ukraine to deal with and fulfill the healthcare needs of its own population as well as refugees. We are going to set up a microbiology laboratory meeting the highest standards at the Toma Ciorba hospital in Chișinău to tackle the infectious diseases to which these populations are exposed.

Since mothers and children are the primary victims of the chaos caused by crises, we are continuing to develop the projects that we have devoted to them. Inaugurated in 2021, the Youssouf Issabré maternity hospital on the outskirts of Bamako in Mali is now fully operational. The maternity and general medicine units currently being built for the Congolese Foundation for Medical Research in Brazzaville in the Republic of the Congo will also soon be up and running.

With the aim of ensuring that mothers and their children can benefit from dedicated centers, the Mérieux Foundation is continuing its work in challenging regions by providing Mother & Child centers offering general and specialist medical consultations. In Duris, in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon, the Mother & Child healthcare center is now open to patients. Other projects were pursued in 2022 in Thiès, Senegal, and in Lebanon.

The Mérieux Foundation draws on the strength of a network of scientists all over the world, often in crisis-hit areas. Serving public health only makes sense if we all work together, sharing our knowledge so that we can deal with these challenges. To achieve this, the Mérieux Foundation relies on the Les Pensières Center for Global health, adding to its courses that bring scientists and international experts together.

We are fortunate to know these scientists. And we are proud and privileged to be able to support some of them as they devote their lives, in difficult conditions, to tackling infectious diseases and supporting public health in their countries. Whatever the situation may be, we shall remain, as always, at their side.

2022 was a busy year for all the teams at the Mérieux Foundation, involving a great deal of movement and commitment. After two years affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, normal operations were able to resume for our projects, making 2022 a historic year in terms of both financial performance and projects carried out.

The situation in the countries in which we operate continues to become more complex. Despite this increasingly difficult context, the Foundation’s commitments remain ‘guided’ by the need to respond to the lack of access to healthcare for the most vulnerable populations and to adapt continuously to these contexts in order to pursue our actions.

At the same time, the flexibility required in terms of project management and a need to open up to new countries have encouraged us to turn to Burundi, Chad and the Republic of the Congo. And, for the first time, to a European country that is dealing with the direct consequences of the war in Ukraine: Moldova.

In these countries, as well as in the countries in which we have long been operational, we have been hit by an increase in public health needs, which only serve to confirm the central role played by biological diagnosis in all its dimensions: the quality of infrastructure and equipment, the essential training of health staff, the development of networks between parties involved and the sharing of experiences.

This complex period has also led us to appreciate the value of historic partnerships developed by the Foundation over the years. I’m referring in particular to the great scientists who have been recognized by the Christophe Mérieux prize, which has been awarded for the past 16 years by the Fondation Christophe et Rodolphe Mérieux. All these long-standing and close relations enable us to maintain a strong local presence and remain a key player in public healthcare, thanks to a wide range of tools for tackling infectious diseases: the state-of-the-art laboratories we work with, the regional and national networks of hospital laboratories we support, and a high level of potential in education and scientific seminars.

2022 was also marked by the welcome return of meetings held in person, both at the Les Pensières Center for Global Health, particularly the long-standing courses run by the Mérieux Foundation, and at the scientific conferences we organize all over the world on key public health topics.

All these achievements are testament to the guiding principles of the Mérieux Foundation: adaptability, responsiveness, direct connection to the specific needs of the regions in which we operate, ability to provide an efficient response, and of course special relations with our operational and financial partners.

I would like to give special thanks to our President for the confidence he instills in us and to our partners for their trust. I would also like to commend the commitment of the teams working at the Foundation, in the field and at head office, which allows us to pursue our mission to improve living conditions for the most vulnerable people.