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, 2021. On this occasion Dr. Laurence BARIL, Director, Dr.LY Sowath, Deputy Director and Mr. Christophe MOUSSET, Administrative and Financial Director presented the 2020 results and achievements of the Institute. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions, the Liaison Council had to take place both in person and by videoconference, depending on the circumstances of each individual participant.
The Institut Pasteur du Cambodge was represented by Dr. Laurence BARIL, Director, Dr. LY Sowath, Deputy Director, and M. Christophe MOUSSET, Administrative and Financial Director, who presented the 2020 results and achievements in research, health services, training and teaching.
In 2020, IPC has been on the frontline of the fight against COVID-19 in support of the Ministry of Health and WHO. In April 2020, WHO designated IPC as one of its global reference laboratories worldwide to better address the public health risk emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic; this is a significant recognition and honor for the Institution and for Cambodia. A summary of the COVID-19 response activities performed by IPC in support of the MoH was provided to the Liaison Council by the IPC Management Team as was a description of the COVID-19 research agenda for IPC and partner institutions to combat the virus. Since January 2020, the continuous support provided by the Ministry of Health to IPC was warmly acknowledged by the IPC Management.
Despite the recent increase in attention to COVID-19 work, IPC continues to also emphasize research efforts in emerging, neglected and major endemic infectious diseases. The presentation highlighted the many important non-COVID-19 scientific results achieved in 2020 on dengue fever, chikungunya virus, rabies, malaria, antimicrobial resistance, tuberculosis, seasonal and avian flu, viral hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, and in entomology. A significant part of these achievements resulted from an efficient and long standing collaboration with both the Ministry of Health (Human Health) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Animal Health) but also with many national, regional and international partners including hospitals.