On Thursday 21 March, LNS was delighted to welcome Prof. Noël M. MANGA, investigator of the CARES project (Casamance Research Program on HIV-Resistance and Sexual Health) and Prof. Evelyne S. DIOM, who had arrived from the Ziguinchor region of Senegal for a visit to Luxembourg, accompanied by Henri Goedertz, President of SAN-ACCESS (Stops AIDS Now and Access) and Dr Victor Arendt, infectiologist at the CHL.

Since 2018, the LNS has been involved in this program, which aims at improving the state of health of the population of Casamance in Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, by strengthening the capacity of health systems to manage at clinical and community level, all the problems associated with infection by HIV, the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and the papillomavirus (HPV). HIV, HBV – the leading cause of death from liver disease – and HPV, which causes cervical cancer, are all at the origin of serious public health problems in West Africa.

The Microbiology Department and the Gynaecological Cytology Laboratory of the National Center of Pathology of LNS are collaborating with ENDA-Santé, SAN-ACCESS and CHL to achieve the objectives stated in this project. In addition to detecting the HPV virus, the project also aims at setting up cervical cancer screening using cytology, and at helping establish a pathological anatomy laboratory in Ziguinchor.

During the first phase of this program (2018-2022), various services were delivered to improve the healthcare system, whether in terms of making technical equipment available, training staff on site, building staff capacity, screening the population and treating infected people.

Today, this program is continuing into a second phase, which involves consolidating what has already been put in place, improving population screening and specialized diagnosis. It will also focus on the exchange of information, on training in Luxembourg and on site (in Casamance and Guinea-Bissau) with joint teams (Luxembourg – Senegal), on improving equipment in health facilities for clinical research, and on strengthening synergies between health facilities and ONG partners.

With the launch of the phase 2 of the project, LNS is reaffirming its humanitarian commitment to public health.