Panafrican News Agency

Annual meeting of West African network for TB, AIDS and malaria opens in Mali

Bamako, Mali (PANA)  -  Members of the West African network for Tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria (WANETAM) Wednesday began their annual meeting, the organizers told PANA here.

The meeting, which ends Friday, aims to examine strategies for meeting the challenges of transforming results from clinical medical research on Tuberculosis (TB), AIDS and malaria into concrete results for populations.

The third edition of the WANETAM annual meeting is under the theme “Empowering African Clinical Research Institutes Through the Strengthening of Capacities, Partnership and Networking”.

It is dedicated to the late Malian Professor Ogobara Doumbo, one of the pioneers of the WANETAM network who died in 2018.

According to Professor Souleymane Mboup, WANETAM coordinator, every year, members of the network hold rotating annual meetings to take stock of activities and carry out strategic thoughts for the future of clinical medical research in Africa. 

"After the Dakar annual meetings in December 2018 and Accra in January 2019, Bamako hosts from 5-7 February 2020 the annual meeting of the West African Network for TB, AIDS and Malaria,” said Mboup.

This edition brings together eleven countries, namely Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ghana, England, Portugal, Germany, The Gambia, Nigeria, Togo, Bissau Guinea and Mali.

Set up in Dakar in July 2009 by West African researchers and funded by the European Union, the WANETAM network aims particularly to strengthen the capacities of its members to carry out clinical tests in Sub-Saharan Africa in accordance with international standards.

It brings together 20 partners including 16 from nine African countries and four European organisations.

The WANETAM network is in its second financing phase since 1 October 2017 after a first phase from 2010 to 2014.

 

-0-    PANA    GT/TBM/MSA/RA   5Feb2020