2023-06-20 06:36:52
Tahiti, June 19, 2023 – Since June 9, the country has launched a scientific cooperation program with Fiji on diseases transmitted by mosquitoes (arboviruses). This project, called “Fiji Share”, aims to improve information on the circulation of viruses and epidemic points. It will also enable Fiji to perfect its molecular analysis techniques.
If Polynesia has long made research and monitoring of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes (arboviruses) a priority, it will now help its neighbors to develop their knowledge on these subjects. Indeed, since June 9, the country, through the Louis-Malardé Institute (ILM), launched the “Fiji Share” program in partnership with the French Development Agency (AFD). This project, which will last three years, therefore aims to improve Fiji’s research and surveillance capacities on these diseases, such as the phenomena of the introduction of new viruses into the territory, the start of an epidemic… For Polynesia, this partnership will allow better visibility on the viruses circulating in the Pacific region. “We will be able to have better information on the way in which viruses circulate in this area and consequently, the diseases which could move to Polynesia”, underlines the director of the research laboratory on emerging viral infections of the ILM, doctor Van-Mai Cao-Lormeau.
As a reminder, arboviruses are vectors of many diseases in the Pacific, such as dengue, zika, Ross River fever or chikungunya. They are transmitted by blood-sucking arthropods, such as mosquitoes and ticks.
The Fijian “hub”
While many neighboring countries could have been selected for this program, the choice of Fijdi was obvious to Dr. Cao-Lormeau: “The choice was made naturally, because we have been working with them for a long time. We have already done a number of dengue and zika research programs with them. So when we were approached in 2017 by AFD on the idea of a cooperation project, it was obvious. In addition to that, the Fiji Islands are very well positioned, in the sense that it is a hub, with connections with almost all the countries in the region. They are also very structured, with good financing. They have a level of sophistication in their lab that also allows them to do things that most other island territories cannot.”
With this program, the ILM aims to “a total transfer” knowledge, protocols and equipment to the Fiji Ministry of Health and the Fiji CCDC (Centre for Communicable Diseases Control). Thus, CCDC personnel will, during this program, be trained in the molecular and serological analysis techniques of the ILM in order to be able to diagnose arbovirus infections. “It includes classic molecular biology, like PCR, which everyone knows now with Covid-19 and which makes it possible to detect the RNA of the virus in the blood”, details the director of the laboratory for research on viral infections. emerging from ILM, “but also something more specialized called high-throughput genomic sequencing, which allows us to have extremely precise information on the potential origin of the introduction of the virus”. This program will also cover, for Fiji, all costs related to the acquisition of new equipment, reagents, carrying out analyses, etc.
To other partnerships
If this first partnership bears fruit, it could make the Country and the ILM want to duplicate it in other neighboring island territories. “I really think we can sign up in other countries, I’ve been to Kiribati, Solomon and Samoa recently”explains Dr. Cao-Lormeau. “But if we decide to engage in similar cooperation with other territories, we won’t be able to replicate the same pattern as Fiji Share. We will have to adapt to the context and to the way in which the country is structured in terms of research, equipment, but also in terms of its desire to carry out research on its territory. It would take time.” As Fiji Share has taken several years to implement, establishing new partnerships would be very labor intensive for the country. A task which would however be in the interest of Polynesia. Indeed, the interests of Fiji Share for the fenua are multiple. In addition to better understanding the movements of arboviruses, the program will make it possible to strengthen collaboration between the two countries, but also to “show Polynesia’s ability to allow other countries to benefit from its expertise and knowledge”. “We will have the opportunity to discover the work and research contexts of our neighbours”, concludes Van-Mai Cao-Lormeau.
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