SIMBLE project third consortium meeting

The third annual consortium meeting of the EDCTP-funded SIMBLE project took place on 13-15 November 2023 in Grenoble, France. The SIMBLE project aims to introduce better adapted diagnostics for bloodstream infections in West Africa. For this purpose, they designed the simplified blood culture system “Bactinsight” that can withstand tropical conditions such as dust, humidity and unreliable power supplies.

The SIMBLE project is now in its third year. After successful, but slightly delayed, in vitro testing of the prototypes, the field study has started in 2023. The Bactinsight simplified blood culture system was rolled out in June 2023 in Benin (field sites Cotonou and Boko) and will be implemented in December 2023 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Enrolment will be ongoing until the end of 2024. To discuss the project’s progress, a delegation from Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, France and Canada attended the consortium meeting in person, with the other partners and work package leaders providing updates online. The programme also included a tour of the facilities of Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA), the French partner, where the development and fabrication of the lensfree microscope was explained and demonstrated. In addition, a two-day hybrid meeting in the mountains was held to discuss progress and future plans of the SIMBLE consortium.