At inauguration of office edifice: Gov’t hails CRID for championing research in infectious diseases.

The Director of Disease Control in the Ministry of Public Health, Dr Georges Alain Etoundi Mballa, who represented the Minister of Public Health, said at the level of the ministry, the fight against infectious diseases, be they of vector-borne transmission or others, is a fundamental priority. 

“It is for this reason that we encourage research that will provide us with strategic, innovative and adapted solutions to our problems. That is why we should all praise this initiative by CRID that permits us have in the country a laboratory of high standards that will help us find solutions to our health problems, as research is fundamental,” Dr Etoundi said.

He added that: “Through this laboratory, we should salute the initiative of young Cameroonian researchers who succeeded in convincing the different sponsors and foreign universities by making them understand that Cameroonians are skilled enough to carry out quality research. We should also praise the President of the Republic for supporting young Cameroonians who travelled abroad to study, then come back to put this acquired knowledge at the disposal of Cameroonians”.

“As a representative from the Ministry of Public Health, I can assure that these young people have had the permanent support of the Minister since their return. This is also to encourage and make young Cameroonians in the diaspora in health and in medicine to know that the minister listens to them and will support their projects,” Dr Etoundi added, noting that it is an initiative to be encouraged, “and I think things like this should be multiplied in the country”.

On his part, the Executive Director of CRID, Prof Charles Wondji, said institution is working hard, not alone, but with the Ministry of Public Health and other stakeholders to help bring down the burden of infectious diseases such as malaria.

“We are doing this at two levels; first by helping Cameroon to implement the best strategies against malaria vectors, so we can find out most malaria mosquitoes behaviour and the genetics how they manage to avoid to be killed by bed nets,” he said. 

“Secondly, we are not sticking just to bed nets, but working on innovative methods to accelerate what we call special repelling. We just got funding and we are proud to say that CRID is one of the first African centres to actually be funded by that funding agency to use the new tools that will repel mosquitoes from houses, preventing them from biting humans and therefore drastically reducing malaria transmission,” he added. 

Recounts some of CRID’s credits

Prof Wondji, recounting some of the achievements of CRID, said: “We are doing a lot of training, capacitating young African scientists and Cameroonians who are at PhD level. We send them across the world to learn and to bring the knowledge back and to share to ensure that from Cameroon we can do the best work possible”.

“For example, one of our first PhD students from CRID, who defended from University of Yaounde I, successfully applied and obtained a Welcome Trust funding of more than 600 million FCFA. The young Cameroonian competed in the UK against others from Oxford and Cambridge universities and he was awarded. This shows that quality work could come from Cameroon,” he noted.

Specificities of the CRID edifice

Prof Charles Wondji said the newly structure is a five-storey building with well-equipped and effective laboratories “that permit our students and researchers to now carry out quality research, which for long they were unable to in Cameroon and only had to travel to Europe or America for such high-level research”.

“That is why we are truly happy and satisfied with the government’s support of this initiative. This building is geared at promoting excellence in scientific research in the country. This is a dream come true…We are also happy that our international partners trust us and that young Cameroonians and even those from other African countries can also benefit from the knowledge and excellence which this centre is providing,” Prof Wondji said.

Speaking earlier, the Chief of Nkoulou Carriere and Mayor of Nkolafamba, both also praised CRID, saying they were satisfied with the quality of the building and with what the centre is doing in terms of research.