Cuba and France sign collaborate to strengthen work of the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine

HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 10 (ACN) The Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK) has received financial support from the French Development Agency (AFD by its French acronym) to carry out the Project to Strengthen National Capacities for Surveillance and Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases.
The support budget amounts to 5.6 million euros as a non-reimbursable fund and will be used to cover the project's needs in terms of laboratory supplies, reagents, transport and climate equipment.

One of the main objectives of this project is the creation of an Advanced Technology Laboratory at the institution for basic research on emerging infectious diseases, according to Jorge Fraga Nodarse from the IPK.

It will also be possible to establish and equip the Molluscarium Insectarium of the IPK's Vector Control Department and strengthen a single system for taking, sending and receiving biological samples and their results from the Provincial Centers of Hygiene Epidemiology and Microbiology to the IPK's National Reference Laboratories.

France has granted 81 million euros to the Ministry of Health and the Finlay Vaccine Institute to contribute to the strengthening of the Cuban health system as a show of support to Cuba's sustainable development policies.

In September this year, it also supported, with 45 million euros, the production of vaccines against meningitis and pneumonia.

The agreement materializing this collaboration was signed in Havana by Rodrigo Malmierca, Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, and Quiterie Pincent, AFD director in Cuba.