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Scientific Reports & Publications

2022 Scientific Reports

The Institute in 2022

The Institut Pasteur du Cambodge (IPC), created in December 1953, is a non-profit research institution operating under the high patronage of the Cambodian Ministry of Health (MoH). Our mission is to contribute to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases through research, public health activities and training.

 

This report presents the activities of the Institute in 2022, a year of gradual return to a normal situation after many months marked by the COVID-19 pandemic in the world and in Cambodia.

Our Institute remains very attractive with, as of 31 December 2022, 293 people of 14 nationalities working there. The scientific activities are carried out by more than 35 scientists, each holding at least a PhD, sometimes coupled with a doctorate degree in medicine, veterinary medicine, or pharmacy.

 

IPC’s activities comprise four components: (i) biomedical research with a specialization in infectious diseases, (ii) support and capacity building for the public health sector in Cambodia and the sub-region, (iii) the provision of health services (laboratory, vaccination), and (iv) training and education. The IPC focuses on infectious diseases and public health challenges and issues, such as illnesses related to arboviruses, respiratory viruses, rabies, malaria, antimicrobial resistance of microorganisms, and zoonoses. These complex scientific themes, particularly those that involve pathogens with complex life cycles that can involve humans, mammals, and arthropods, studied in a One Health approach, could not be effectively addressed without complementarity between the Institute’s units and its specialists (entomologists, doctors, veterinary scientists, immunologists, epidemiologists, mammalogists and others) or without its high-level technical platforms, including a biosafety level 3 (BSL3) laboratory and an animal research facility.

 

In 2022, to strengthen the interaction between research units, 3 working groups have been created or reorganized, for antimicrobial resistance, rabies and arboviruses. A notable development this year regards ticks, with two projects focused on (i) tick diversity and their endofauna to bring light on tick-borne diseases and their transmission in rural Cambodia (NOSI-TICK fundes by NIH), and (ii) the development a determination key for tick species in all Southeast Asian countries (SEA TICKEY). This latter project will initiate and develop veterinary entomology in Cambodia, with the Royal University of Agriculture and the Ministry of Agriculture as our main partners.

 

Research activities carried out in 2022 comprise the publication of 53 articles by scientists affiliated to IPC, and appearances in peer-reviewed international journals with impact factors (IF) higher than 0. Among these appearances, 19 were as first or last author, and 34 had an IF greater than or equal to 4.

 

The public health activities carried out by the 3 IPC’s WHO reference centres included: continued monitoring of human and avian influenza viruses and SARS-COV-2 with, in particular, the monitoring of SARS-CoV2 variants which appeared successively in 2022, and the investigation of a human case of avian influenza (H9N2) alongside—and in support of—the MoH teams. Post-exposure rabies management activities increased by 43 % in 2022 as compared to 2021, with the management of 63,041 patients in our 3 rabies prevention centers. The rabies risk remains high in Cambodia. Indeed, 74% of the animal tests for rabies virus at the Virology Unit were positive. In 2022, discussions were also initiated between IPC’s Management and the Directors of Kampong Cham Province’s Health Department and of Kampong Cham’s Provincial Hospital, to rebuild the Rabies Center within the hospital compound, and to make it more functional and accessible.

 

IPC plays a major role in the training of university students. Its scientists participate in teaching offered by local universities, including the University of Health Sciences (UHS) in Phnom Penh, and welcomes many students for internships and practical experiences. In 2022, 73 students interned at IPC. This is higher than the 55 hosted in 2021, which number was limited due to the continuing COVID-19 epidemic. Among the 2022 students, 59 were Cambodian nationals, while the others were either French, Indonesian, Thai or Columbian.

 

As part of the training of these young scientists, a doctor from the Clinical Research Group, currently pursuing a Master’s degree at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medecine, joined the body of scientists from the Pasteur Network, bringing to 9 the number of “Cambodian statutory scientists” at the IPC.

Finally, an aid policy for young Cambodians has been put in place so that they can follow their PhD at the IPC (scholarship for non-IPC students, payment of their salary during their PhD for people from the iPC). Thus, in the last quarter, the IPC housed 9 PhD students, including 7 Cambodian nationals.

 

Services activities increased strongly in 2022, compared to 2021: (i) + 38.6 % for the Medical Biology Laboratory’s activities (8.3 million of “B”), (ii) + 11 % for the total number of tests performed by the Laboratory of Environment and Food Safety, which was accredited by the International Accreditation Service (IAS) in Seprember 2022, and (iii) + 82 % for the total number of injections (including vaccinations and immunoglobulins) at the International Vaccination Center.

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