At the end of their first year of activities, members of the African Coalition for Epidemic Research, response and training (ALERRT), in French, the African Coalition for Research, Intervention and Training for the Prevention of Epidemics met at Dakar on March 19, 2019.
The objective of this meeting was to highlight the results of the research carried out in 2018, but also to project itself in the future to cope with epidemics.
Under this chapter, according to Professor Souleymane Mboup, Founding President of the Institute for Health Research, Epidemiological Surveillance and Training (IRESSEF), “Emerging or re-emerging epidemic diseases pose a permanent threat to global health security” .
Professor Mboup was speaking at the opening of the General Assembly of the African Coalition for Research, Intervention and Training for the Prevention of Epidemics.
He recalled that the concept of emerging or re-emerging infectious disease has been developing for several years and that it has undoubtedly become fashionable since the 90s to increase in the early 2000s.
According to him, the determinants of these emerging infectious diseases are multiple, and are largely related to the evolution of infectious agents, vectors and host in a context of environmental, socio-economic and cultural changes that unbalance the ecosystems.
“Patient-centered research, these priority infections and other emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, is, however, very difficult for a variety of reasons,” he said.