INRB is a National Public Health Laboratory of Democratic Republic of Congo, with a mission in research, clinical analysis, training and surveillance of tropical diseases.

 

The Parasitology laboratory of INRB is the National Reference for Human African Trypanosomiasis (LNRTHA) in DRC. The LNRTHA works in close collaboration with the national surveillance and control program for Human African Trypanosomiasis (PNLTHA) and with teams of veterinarian Doctors involved in the surveillance of animal trypanosomiasis in the country including in the Kinshasa suburbs.

 

INRB has developed laboratory facilities and techniques for HAT diagnosis( immunofluorecence and ELISA) and research. It produces locally the mini Anion Exchange centrifugation kits (mAECT) for HAT diagnosis. In collaboration with the Belgian Institute for Tropical Medicine (ITG) in Antwerp, currently INRB is conducting a clinical research on the shortening of the duration of treatment and follow-up after treatment of sleeping sickness patients in Mbuji Mayi, a city at about 800 km from Kinshasa

 

In the framework of the WHO Network for Treatment Failure and Drug Resistance in HAT, a colony of Grammomys surdaster rats (well known for their high susceptibility to T.b. gambiense), is available for the isolation of resistant T.b. gambiense strains from patients not responding to the treatment. The Institute has a cryobank with more than 100 isolates of T.b. gambiense.

 

INRB is also involved in the surveillance of poliomyelitis, measles and yellow fever under the auspices of the WHO. As well as It collaborates with many international institutions: Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK; National Institute for Communicable Diseases in RSA; Institut de Médecine Tropicale du Service de santé des armies, France; Centres for Disease Control and prevention, Atlenta/Usa; Swiss Tropical Instituite, Basel, Switzerland; Organisation de Coordination pour la lutte contre les endémies en Afrique centrale( OCEAC), Yaoundé, Cameroun

Human African Trypanosomiasis

                  And Leishmaniasis

                         Diagnostics

TRYLEIDIAG

Network