Project News

The second Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) Meeting was held at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) Board Room on Tuesday, October 29, 2013.

The aim of this meeting was to share the progress of each activity since the last Project Steering Committee (PSC) meeting on June 5, 2013, discuss current issues and challenges, and talk about future plans. Dr. Mwandawiro (KEMRI's Assistant Director of Partnership and Collaboration) was the chairman of the meeting. Twelve Participants attended, including Mr. Shimizu and Mr. Kinyangi from JICA Kenya Office (Health Sector), and Professor Ichinose (Chief Representative of NUITM-KEMRI Project at Nagasaki University) as an observer.

Minutes of the Second PSC meeting were reviewed at the beginning of the meeting. Professor Morita, the Chief Advisor of the project, pointed out the highlights of each output since the last meeting. In addition, project managers of Outputs 1 to 3 presented its progress in the activities according to the Plan of Operation (PO). For Output 1, research on the development of antibodies and purification of antigens were conducted as planned. Also production of prototypes of point of care test kit had been started. For Output 2, training sessions for KEMRI staff on biosafety level 3-class virus isolation and amplification, standard operating procedure of biosafety level 3 (P3) laboratory, and laboratory equipment were conducted. Research using ELISA has been conducted smoothly at the newly renovated KEMRI-Alupe arbovirus laboratory. For Output 3, baseline survey was conducted in pilot areas and pilot implementation of the outbreak alert system was continuing as planned. Participants confirmed that almost all activities in three respective Outputs were being implemented as planned. For other agenda, suggestions were made to revise relevant names of institutions and administrative areas according to the reconstruction and devolution in Kenya. For example, it was suggested that the project counterpart name should be edited from the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation (MOPHS) to the Ministry of Health (MOH), and the project implementation areas should be called Regions and not Province. The suggestions were approved without any objections.