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Nuclear science to better prevent epidemics: this is the meaning of the partnership agreement signed Wednesday, November 17 in Senegal between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Pasteur Institute in Dakar. The IAEA will strengthen technology transfer to help identify animal disease outbreaks on the continent more quickly.
With our correspondent in Dakar, Charlotte Idrac
Covid-19, fever Ebola, Marburg virus, bird flu… All these epidemics have an animal origin. This is called ” zoonoses “. And nuclear technology makes it possible to better detect them, explains IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi. The latter is joining forces with the Institut Pasteur within the framework of the “ZODIAC” project (Zoonotic Disease Integrated Action), “integrated action against zoonoses” launched last year:
« Nuclear-derived technologies make a very important contribution to the very early identification of the emergence of pathologies of zoonotic origin. We have branches in Africa, the Institut Pasteur and others, which will be integrated to establish an alert network for the emergence of pathologies that could develop into pandemics. »
the test PCR in real time for example, used to detect the Covid-19 virus, is a technology derived from nuclear. So concretely, how will this partnership translate? Professor Amadou Sall is general administrator of the Institut Pasteur in Dakar: “ Today, someone who works in a laboratory, who needs to be trained in this detection technique, can be supported by the IAEA and the Institut Pasteur, and transfer these technologies to countries that need them. or laboratories that do not have the capacity. There is a research component to try to develop new methods that are even more sensitive and which go much faster. »
The financial aspect of this partnership has not been specified.
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