The Institut Pasteur network: a crucial partner against Ebola.

www.thelancet.com Vol 384 October 4, 2014 1239 After months of confusion and a slow response, the international community has fi nally been galvanised to respond to the outbreak of Ebola in west Africa, which could become one of the worst infectiousdisease-driven humanitarian crises of recent times. With fi ve countries aff ected (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, and Senegal), more than 6500 cases of probable, confi rmed, and suspected Ebola reported, and over 3000 deaths, this Ebola outbreak is the largest ever seen. Latest projections are alarming—the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that Liberia and Sierra Leone could see up to 1·4 million cases of Ebola infection by January, 2015. Although Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) made early calls for strong, coordinated international action to address this public health crisis, WHO and donors have been criticised for being slow to coordinate a response and mobilise adequate capacity to control this outbreak. The truth about how the international community has responded will need to be assessed independently at a later date to ensure that lessons are learned. Meanwhile, the complexity of dealing with this Ebola outbreak has highlighted the need for traditional actors, such as WHO and the CDC, to embrace the wider health and humanitarian community. Indeed, this outbreak has shown how important scientifi c networks, such as the Institut Pasteur, can be for adding urgent capacity when a surge response is needed. It is important to understand how these networks operate, their comparative advantages, and their added value in times of crisis. The Institut Pasteur, a not-for-profi t foundation with its headquarters in Paris, was founded by the French chemist and biologist Louis Pasteur in 1887. A further Institut Pasteur was created in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) in 1891. “Science knows no countries”, said Louis Pasteur. Today, his inspiring message has led to the creation of 32 Institut Pasteur centres across 25 nations. Each centre has its own network, strategy, and collaborations locally, within the Pasteur network, as well as with other foundations, UN agencies, and other French organisations—eg, the French National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research. With epidemiologists, entomologists, clinicians, micro biologists, and other specialties represented among its staff , the Institut Pasteur is a multisite and multidisciplinary organisation. The institute’s mission covers the prevention and treatment of diseases through biomedical research, education, and public health action, including surveillance and outbreak intervention. The Institut Pasteur International Network deals with major infectious and neglected diseases, such as chikungunya, dengue, leishmaniasis, malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, hepatitis B and C, human papillomavirus, cholera, and Ebola. On Sept 10–13, 2014, under the leadership of Christian Bréchot, the President of Institut Pasteur, “Pasteurians” gathered at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, for their fi rst Institut Pasteur International Network Symposium. The aim of the meeting was to pave “the way for research on Global Health and One Health” and to stimulate, catalyse, and support collaborations between the network’s diverse group of institutes. The unfolding Ebola outbreak gave the event an additional dimension by highlighting the importance and potential of such a network of institutes through in-house expertise and on-the-ground knowledge and presence. In March, 2014, Sylvain Baize and colleagues at the Institut Pasteur’s National Reference Centre for Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers in Lyon were the fi rst to identify the Ebola strain responsible for the west African Ebola outbreak. Amadou Sall and his group at Institut Pasteur of Dakar in Senegal, a WHO Collaborating Centre on Arboviruses and Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers, The Institut Pasteur network: a crucial partner against Ebola