The Institut Pasteur du Cambodge (IPC) held its annual Liaison Council under the presidency of His Excellency the Minister of Health, Professor MAM Bunheng, on May 27th. On this occasion Dr Laurence Baril, Director, Dr LY Sowath, Deputy Director, and M. Christophe Mousset, Administrative and Financial Director exposed the results and achievements of the institute in 2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Liaison Council had to take place through video conference.
The Institut Pasteur du Cambodge (IPC) is a non-profit research and public utility Institute engaged by convention with the Royal Government of Cambodia under the patronage of the Ministry of Health.
IPC held his annual Liaison Council under the presidency of His Excellency the Minister of Health, Professor MAM Bunheng, on May 27th 2020.
Permanent members of the Liaison Council are representatives of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Economy and Finances, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Her Excellency the French Ambassador, the rector of the University of Health Sciences, the vice-rector for international relations of the Royal University of Agriculture, the President and CEO of Institut Pasteur representatives of World Health Organization (WHO) and of UNICEF.
Invited members are, the Director of Calmette Hospital, the Director of the National Pediatric Hospital, representatives of Cambodian health institutions, of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, of the Word Bank, of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD-French Development Agency) and of several International partners. This year His Excellency the Australian Ambassador joined the Council.
Dr Laurence Baril, Director of Institut Pasteur du Cambodge (IPC), Dr Ly Sowath, Deputy Director of IPC, and M. Christophe Mousset, Administrative and Financial Director exposed the results and achievements in research, services to the public, training and teaching.
Several important scientific results were obtained in 2019 on dengue fever, rabies, malaria, antibiotic resistance, tuberculosis, avian flu, hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, and mosquito control. A significant part of those achievements results from a close collaboration with both the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
In 2019, the IPC was involved in the organization of the first year of the International joint Master of Infectiology between the University of Health Sciences (UHS) under the direction of His Excellency Professor SAPHONN Vonthanak, rector of the UHS, and the University of Paris-Saclay, France.
The IPC is also offering a wide range of services to the public through the medical biology laboratory, the international vaccine center, the anti-rabies treatment centers in Phnom Penh, Battambang and Kampong Cham, and the laboratory of environment and food safety.
In 2020, the IPC is on the front line of the fight against COVID-19 with the Cambodian Center for Diseases Control (CDC) and WHO. On April 2020, WHO named IPC as one of the Global Reference Laboratory to better address the public health risk emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. It is an important recognition for IPC and for Cambodia. A summary of the activities performed by IPC was done by the Direction to support surveillance but also what will be the COVID-19 research agenda defined for IPC and other partner institutions to combat COVID-19.