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His Excellency, the Ambassador of Japan to Burkina Faso, Mr. Masaaki KATO, visited the National Public Health Laboratory (LNSP) on Thursday, June 30, 2022 to observe the achievements of the Japanese project, "Project for Reinforcement of the Capacity of National Laboratory of Public Health for the Riposte against Covid-19."

The Ambassador, accompanied by Mr. Keiichi OKITSU, Resident Representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), was hosted by the Director General, Mr. Elie KABRE.

JICA implemented the project at a cost of more than four hundred million CFA francs with the purpose of strengthening the capacity of the LNSP to deal with the health crisis caused by the COVID-19.

Three following components constitute the JICA project.

• Capacity building of LNSP staff
• Strengthening of the LNSP's technical platform for the response to COVID-19
• Reinforcement of communication and results management equipment

In relation to the first component "capacity building of staff," JICA provided four trainings to staff of LNSP.

Those trainings are specifically "normative and regulatory requirements in quality management" "metrology" "maintenance of biomedical equipment" and "diagnosis of emerging and re-emerging diseases" The last two trainings took place in third countries; the former was in Senegal and the latter was in Democratic Republic Congo.

As a part of the second component, "strengthening of the LNSP's technical platform," JICA donated the following equipment to LNSP.

• One XT fluorocycler thermocycler
• Two Truelab quattro PCR controllers
• One GenoXtract extractor
• One Banalizer: Waste sterilizer shredder
• Reagents and consumables for 10,000 tests
• Personal protective equipment

With regard to the last component, "reinforcement of communication and results management equipment," JICA granted the following IT equipment.

• Ten computers
• Five projector table
• Three large capacity servers
• Fifty large capacity batteries
• Ten tablets
• Five video projectors
• Five 15 kVA hybrid inverters
• Five large-screen television sets

During the visit, Director General of LNSP expressed gratitude to Japan and stressed that the cooperation comes at the right time and it will greatly contribute to not only COVID-19 but also other infectious disease control in Burkina Faso by heightened stuff capacity, a set of advanced equipment and improved quality management of LNSP.