Kinshasa, February 3rd, 2026 (CPA). – The importance of international cooperation in health has been the focus of a visit made on Tuesday to the National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB) in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, by the Minister Delegate to the Minister in charge of Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE), responsible for Franco phony, International Partnerships and French Nationals Abroad. ‘The INRB symbolises the strength of the Franco-Congolese partnership and the importance of international cooperation in the field of health. In order to effectively prevent pandemics, France has launched a strategy called the One Health approach. It is based on the principle that human health is dependent on animal and environmental health and that we cannot separate them,’ has declared Eleonore Caroit. ‘The INRB is the spearhead of the public health system in DRC as a public health laboratory. It is an essential institution for public health, but it is also a centre of excellence at the global level that should enable us to prevent future epidemics,’ she has added. According to her, this institution perfectly illustrates, through its surveillance and response to epidemics, particularly zoonotic diseases, the importance of the ‘One Health’ approach that will be highlighted this year. She has noted that, in terms of health, DRC and France have an exemplary relationship, particularly between the INRB and the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), the Merieux Foundation and the French Development Agency (AFD).
Furthermore, the Congolese Minister in charge of Public Health, Hygiene and Social Welfare, Dr Samuel Roger Kamba, has noted that this visit conveys a message of recognition of a highly strategic world in the fields of science, research and innovation for the protection of our respective populations. Dr Kamba has indicated that the government, through the Ministry in charge of Public Health, is very grateful for the efforts France is making through the AFD and other foundations and universities to improve the Congolese health sector. He has, on the same occasion, announced the signing of a decree creating a prize of excellence called: ‘Jean Jacques Muyembe’ for researchers in the field of public health, particularly infectious diseases. ‘This prize is worth $100,000 each year. This is the government’s effort to support researchers in the field of biomedical research,’ he has specified.
The major challenges of the epidemic response in DRC
In addition, Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe has indicated that the logistics and the overlapping of epidemics are the two major challenges facing the epidemic response in DRC. ‘Due to the size of the country, the collection, the storage and the transport of samples to the reference laboratory is really problematic, and the deployments of equipment… experts in the field require a lot of logistics,’ he has said. This professor has also made it known that within the Ministry in charge of Health, the INRB plays the specific role of national reference laboratory for, among other things, malaria, diseases with epidemic potential (plague), poliomyelitis, measles, yellow fever, Mpox and African trypanosomiasis (AT). Inaugurated in 1984, the INRB has achieved several milestones, such as the production of mini columns for the diagnosis of HAT, the invention of the monoclonal antibody MAb114 (Ebanga) to combat Ebola, and its contribution to the eradication of polio in DRC. ACP/