The event was hosted by Mamy Raoul Ravelomanana, President of Antananarivo University, and Alain Mérieux, President of the Mérieux Foundation. The new building will enable the Charles Mérieux Center for Infectious Disease to respond to the rapid expansion of its team in recent years, and facilitate discussion and joint projects with the Mérieux Foundation’s local staff.
This expansion has taken the Center’s workforce from 10 to 60 employees in just 12 years. The scale of this growth illustrates the broadening scope of the Center’s missions and its major impact in the fight against infectious diseases in Madagascar, whether in terms of diagnostics, research, or training.
The building will house the Center for Infectious Disease’s administrative team as well as the Mérieux Foundation’s staff, as the projects and themes they share require them to work together to pursue their common goal of improving the health of Madagascar’s population.
Mamy Raoul Ravelomanana and Willy Franck Randriamarotia, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, took the opportunity to underline the importance of the center’s actions, both in training young scientists, researchers, and laboratory technicians, and in its key role in the fight against infectious diseases, including leprosy, through its recognition as a National Reference Laboratory. The opening of the new building symbolizes not only the expansion of the Center for Infectious Disease’s activities, but also its lasting impact on public health in Madagascar.