DAKAR, Senegal

The Pasteur Institute in Dakar, Senegal has officially launched a platform, with an aim to promote access to diagnostics in Africa through the production and distribution of rapid diagnostic tests.

“The Diatropix platform, which we are launching today [Monday] is a non-profit initiative whose main mission is to promote access to diagnostics, in Africa as a priority, through the development, production, and distribution of rapid diagnostic tests," said Amadou Alpha Sall, general administrator of the Pasteur Institute during a ceremony at the premises of the institute on Monday.

The pathologies concerned by the initiative, according to Sall are Yellow fever, Ebola virus disease, measles, rubella, bacterial meningitis, and COVID-19.

"This initiative aims to strengthen health systems and contribute to their resilience by improving disease surveillance, patient care, preparedness and response to epidemics and also the planning of health policies," Sall said.

"It is a technological innovation based on a relevant economic model and resulting from a credible partnership to manufacture in Senegal rapid diagnostic tests according to international industrial standards and at affordable prices," explained the Senegalese Health Minister Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr, who presided the ceremony.

The Diatropix project is the result of a collaboration with Mologic, a British biotechnology company, which was launched in March. The goal is to produce nearly two million rapid test kits per year.

*Writing by Felix Tih