Gone is the diagnostic test evaluation course.

Those who took part in the course on the evaluation of diagnostic tests, organised from Monday 7 to Friday 11 April 2025, are returning to their respective workplaces after five days of training in Yaoundé, armed with a certificate of attendance.

According to Muriel Vray, Richard Njouom, Nicolas Berthet and Delia Djuicy, the training facilitators, the participants were receptive to the message and are now returning to their respective countries with a better understanding of the various stages involved in validating a diagnostic test (from the laboratory to use in the field), measure and assess the validity and reproducibility of tests (sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, positive likelihood ratio (LR+), negative likelihood ratio (LR-), ROC curves, kappa index, Bland-Altman method, etc.). In addition to this, there is a better understanding of the development of the protocol for the evaluation of diagnostic tests, with identification and discussion of biases.

In his opening remarks, Dr Mirdad Kazanji, Director General of the CPC, asked the lucky recipients to make good use of the knowledge they had acquired, so that the Pasteur institutes to which they are attached can benefit from the experience, while at the same time lobbying the Pasteur Network to increase these capacity-building initiatives for African researchers and the links between them.