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July highlights from the BLMs4BU project: We actively participated in the skin NTD-LABNET meeting in Madrid and launched a new sub-study in Côte d’Ivoire to explore Buruli ulcer patients’ journey and access barriers

Isra Cruz, member of the WHO Diagnostic Technical Advisory Group for NTDs and lead data manager of the BLMs4BU Consortium, hosted at the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Madrid, Spain) a new meeting of the Skin NTD-LABNET (8-10 July).

Isra Cruz, member of the WHO Diagnostic Technical Advisory Group for NTDs and lead data manager of the BLMs4BU Consortium, hosted at the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Madrid, Spain) a new meeting of the Skin NTD-LABNET (8-10 July). This network is working on harmonization of skin NTDs diagnostic PCR procedures. Therefore, the objective of the meeting was to review the procedures that are already developed and present the updates of the ones in development. Emma Sáez López (Universidad de Zaragoza) proposed strategies to improve the quality of molecular diagnosis for Buruli ulcer (BU), whereas Santiago Ramón-García (Fundación ARAID/Universidad de Zaragoza) presented an update of the BLMs4BU project.

In addition, a new sub-study to evaluate the experience of Buruli ulcer patients is going to be implemented in Côte d’Ivoire and Benin. This study will recruit BU patients, caregivers, healthcare personnel, religious and community leaders, and traditional medicine practitioners from endemic areas related to the BLMs4BU trial. A greater understanding of the patient’s experience will be obtained, allowing the barriers that hinder adherence to treatment and access to health services to be addressed. This will be useful to develop the implementation strategy for the new treatment tested in the BLMs4BU project, as well as other effective interventions against BU.

To this end, the second half of July was dedicated to perform the pilot phase of this sub-study in Côte d’Ivoire. A workshop coordinated by Isra Cruz, Emma Sáez López and Koffi Aboa Paul (Programme National de Lutte Contre l’Ulcère de Buruli) was held to discuss the protocol and all the questionnaires. A total of 13 participants attended the meeting, including the clinician responsible and the interviewers for each site in Côte d’Ivoire (Divo, Taabo, Djékanou et Zoukougbeu). Afterwards, the validation of the questionnaires was performed with different participants.

Moreover, during this visit, Isra Cruz and Emma Sáez took advantage to monitor the clinical trial in the clinical sites, as well as to perform a visit to the Institute Pasteur de Côte d’Ivoire, which is the laboratory in charge of BU diagnostic in the country.

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