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Scientific Reports & Publications

2023 Scientific Reports

The Institute in 2023

The Institut Pasteur du Cambodge (IPC), created in December 1953, is a non-profit research institution operating under the high patronage of the Cambodian Ministry of Health (MoH). Our mission is to contribute to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases through research, public health activities, and training. This report presents the Institute’s activities in 2023, a year marked by the celebration of the IPC’s 70th anniversary.

 

As of 31 December 2023, the IPC’s on-site staff represented 16 different nationalities. Scientific activities are carried out by more than 35 scientists, each holding at least a PhD or a doctorate degree in medicine, veterinary medicine or pharmacy and another PhD or master’s degree.

 

The IPC’s activities encompass four main categories: (i) biomedical research with a specialization in infectious diseases, (ii) support and capacity building for public health in Cambodia and the Greater Mekong Subregion, (iii) the provision of health services (laboratory, vaccination), and (iv) training and education. The IPC focuses on infectious diseases and on public health challenges and issues, which include illnesses related to arboviruses, respiratory viruses, rabies, malaria, antimicrobial resistance in microorganisms, and zoonoses, among others. These complex scientific matters, particularly those that involve pathogens with complex life cycles that can involve humans, mammals, and arthropods — studied with a One Health approach — could not be effectively addressed without complementarity between the Institute’s units and specialists (entomologists, doctors, veterinary scientists, immunologists, epidemiologists, mammalogists and others) or without its high-level technical platforms, including a Biosafety Level-3 (BSL3) laboratory and an animal research facility.

 

Research activities done in 2023 were featured in 49 articles published by scientists affiliated to IPC, appearing in peer-reviewed international journals with impact factors (IF) greater than 0. Among them are 18 as first or last author and 36 with an IF greater than or equal to 4.

 

The IPC’s three WHO reference centres carried out public health activities alongside and in support of MoH teams, including: (i) monitoring human and avian influenza viruses (six human cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1), (ii) monitoring SARS-CoV2 variants, and (iii) the virological confirmation of a case of monkeypox virus infection (an imported case from Thailand).

 

Post-exposure rabies management activities decreased slightly in 2023, by -4,1% compared to 2022, with the management of 60,476 patients in our 3 rabies prevention centres. The risks related to rabies indeed remain high in Cambodia: 74 % of the 220 animals tested for rabies virus at the Virology Unit were positive.

 

The IPC plays a major role in the training of university students. Its scientists participate in curricula offered by local universities, including the University of Health Sciences (UHS) in Phnom Penh. Additionally, the IPC itself welcomes many students for internships and practical experiences. During 2023, 131 students interned at the IPC. This is higher than the 73 welcomed in 2022, a year which saw a progressive return to normalcy after the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the 131 students, 95 were Cambodian nationals, while the others were French, American, Bangladeshi, Colombian, Cameroonian, Dutch, Pakistani, Kenyan, Italian, and Ugandan.

 

An ambitious capacity-strengthening policy for young Cambodians was put in place in 2022 (for young talents at the IPC), allowing them to carry out their doctorate studies at the IPC (scholarships for non-IPC students and continued salaries for IPC personnel). This policy continued throughout 2023. As a result, the IPC hosted sixteen doctoral students in the last quarter of 2023, including eight Cambodian nationals.

 

Our Health Service activities in 2023 compared well to those of 2022: (i) our Medical Biology Laboratory’s activities decreased by 25.5 % (6.2 vs 8 million of “B”), but if we exclude COVID-19 tests, the activity level increased by 53.1 % (5.9 vs 3.8 million of “B”); (ii) a 0.3 % increase for the total number of tests performed by for the Laboratory of Environment and Food Safety; and (iii)  a 24 % increase for the total number of injections (including vaccinations and immunoglobulins) provided by the International Vaccination Centre.

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