The Department of Epidemiology of Parasitic Diseases (DEAP) of the Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Odontostomatology (FMPOS) of the USTTB, was a training and research structure on endemo-epidemic parasitoses that could constitute a public health problem in Mali. It grew out of the Laboratoire de Parasitologie Médicale created in 1976 by Professor Philippe RANQUE. This laboratory became the Department of Epidemiology of Parasitic Diseases in 1984, and a WHO Collaborating Center for studies on schistosomiasis. The DEAP comprised two major sections: the parasitology-epidemiology section and the medical entomology section. In 1992, DEAP set up a Malaria Research and Training Center (MRTC) within the Faculties of Pharmacy, Medicine and Odonto-Stomatology, all part of the University of Science, Techniques and Technologies in Bamako. This center is the fruit of a commitment by the government of the Republic of Mali (Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education) and of international collaborations developed by DEAP with the World Health Organization (and in particular its research branch on tropical diseases, TDR), the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Universities of Rome, Marseille, Tulane and Maryland, the Rockfeller Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development (US-AID). The MRTC then gave birth to the Parasites and Microbes Research and Training Center (PMRTC), created by Decision N◦2024 000303/MESRS – SG DU__________ (signed by the Minister on March 19, 2024).
Management
Professor Abdoulaye DJIMDE, Parasitology – Mycology, is the Director.
Fields of expertise
The PMRTC is endowed with qualified resources in various fields, most of which have been trained as part of the multidisciplinary research vision. The center is staffed by epidemiologists, parasitologists, mycologists, pharmacologists, entomologists, veterinarians, geographers, immunologists, geneticists, statisticians, bioinformaticians and health economists, and collaborates with national and international institutions specializing in other fields. The PMRTC conducts research into malaria and other tropical diseases, emerging viruses, and the links between vectors and animals (rodents) and these diseases.