Context Rapid Response Mobile Laboratories (RRMLs) provide crucial support during infectious disease outbreaks, natural disasters, and humanitarian crises by enabling on-site testing and diagnostics. During these emergencies, countries can experience gaps in human and infrastructural resources, underscoring the need for flexible and portable laboratory solutions. SMILE strengthens emergency response capacities…
Context Viral haemorrhagic fevers, especially Lassa fever, cause outbreaks in West Africa, including in Nigeria, Guinea, and Benin. Many referral hospitals face limited intensive care capacity, shortages of essential equipment and supplies, and insufficiently trained staff. This leads to preventable deaths and weak preparedness for larger outbreaks. The MEVIN 2.0…
Advancing sustainable genomic surveillance capacity in West Africa is a central goal of the GHPP-CELESTA project. In 2025, CELESTA partners achieved two major milestones: the successful training and implementation of the ViMOP bioinformatics pipeline (https://www.bnitm.de/en/news/news/neue-pipeline-vimop), and the establishment of a new sequencing unit at the Viral Hemorrhagic Fever…
Context Pathogens with outbreak and zoonotic potential pose a significant threat to public health, particularly when antimicrobial resistance (AMR) further limits treatment options. In both cases, strong laboratory-based surveillance is essential, as its data can inform national health policies as well as infection prevention and outbreak control measures. Building on…
Context Malaria remains a major public health challenge in Ghana, particularly in rural areas. Effective malaria medicines are currently available, but rising drug resistance could reverse recent gains. Malaria transmission is also changing due to climatic and environmental factors. The project responds to the need for strengthened malaria surveillance to…
As part of this new programme phase of GHPP (2023-2025), our project CELESTA focuses on expanding the genomic surveillance capacity for RNA (ribonucleic acid) viruses of our cooperation partners. They are: the Laboratoire de Centre de Recherche en Virologie – Laboratoire des Fièvres Hemorragiques Virales de Guinée (CRV-LFHVG) in Conakry, Guinea,…
Needs-based plan for building structures and skills VaccTrain continues to support its partners in building regulatory capacity during the second phase of the GHPP. The VaccTrain team visited three of its five partner countries, The Gambia, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, between February and July 2023. During this, the project teams…
PALS – the “Participatory Approach to Learning in Systems” is novel: based on a pilot project, the IPC practice approach and training concept were further developed by the NiCaDe IPC team and implemented for the first time in Nigeria 2019 – 2022. In evaluating the training program, we aim to…
As part of the ORDER-HC project, a team of the RKI and COMAHS conducted a qualitative study in Sierra Leone between the end of 2021 and the end of 2022. The aim of the study was to identify and analyse strategies, measures and experiences of health care providers of maintaining…