Public Health - Centre Pasteur du Cameroun
Public Health
One of the CPC’s main missions is to help strengthen disease surveillance for MINSANTE and MINEPIA through two actions: support for health monitoring operations and analysis of surveillance data.
This mission is achieved through the CPC’s participation in major national and international programmes to combat diseases, particularly those at risk of epidemics, not only in Cameroon but also in the Central African sub-region.
Although it is a National Laboratory for various diseases, the CPC’s expertise often gives it a sub-regional dimension. It receives and analyses samples from other countries. All its analyses are subject to external quality control in accordance with WHO recommendations. The databases are shared on a weekly basis with MINSANTE and all the organisations involved. By Ministerial Note E2107/L/MINSANTE/SG/DPML/SDLTS/SL of 18/08/2015 designating the official list of reference laboratories for the various diseases under epidemiological surveillance, the CPC was designated as the referent for 28 diseases. Surveillance has been extended to smallpox virus relatives.
National reference centers
WHO Regional Reference List
WHO Reference Laboratory, inter-country for poliomyelitis; WHO sub-regional laboratory for avian influenza WHO bacteriology laboratory for the Central Africa bloc WHO regional center of excellence for the surveillance of infectious diseases through water and food for French-speaking Africa; Regional Reference Laboratory for Yellow Fever WHO national reference center for human influenza WHO national laboratory for yellow fever, measles
National Reference List
The table below groups together our national labels:
| N° | Diseases under surveillance |
| 1 | Cholera |
| 2 | Measles |
| 3 | Yellow fever |
| 4 | Poliomyelitis |
| 5 | Human Rage |
| 6 | Human influenza/SARS |
| 7 | Bacterial meningitis |
| 8 | Viral hemorrhagic fevers (Ebola, Marburg, Rift Valley, Lassa, Crimea-Congo, Nile, Western) |
| 9 | Chikungunya / Dengue |
| 10 | Malaria |
| 11 | Sickle cell disease |
| 12 | Tuberculosis |
| 13 | HIV infection |
| 14 | Onchocerciasis / Lymphatic filariasis |
| 15 | Dracunculiasis |
| 16 | Anthrax |
| 17 | Leprosy/buruli ulcer |
| 18 | Smallpox |
Related pages
Measles/Rubella
Measles/Rubella Surveillance Activities As the WHO National Reference Laboratory for measles and rubella, the CPC is responsible for ensuring the serological diagnosis of these pathologies. Samples from suspected cases are sent to the CPC via the GTC/PEV for testing for the presence of IgM anti-measles and rubella virus using the ELISA technique (Euroimmun diagnostic kits […]
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Cholera
Cholera surveillance activities The CPC carries out biological confirmation of cases and transmits daily reports to the authorities and the various partners involved in response actions. A total of 94 suspect stools were sent to the CPC for cholera vibrio testing in 2023. Following the analyses, 35 cases of cholera were confirmed, all of the […]
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Ebola
Ebola surveillance activities The CPC is the national reference laboratory for the surveillance of Viral Hemorrhagic Fever (VHF). The laboratory is responsible, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health, for ensuring the biological confirmation of suspected cases of VHF in Cameroon. National VHF surveillance was significantly affected by the very first outbreak of […]
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Human Flu
Activités de surveillance de la Grippe Humaine Le CPC est Centre National de Référence de la Grippe au Cameroun. A ce titre, il effectue une surveillance organisée sous forme de surveillance sentinelle et une surveillance biologique ciblant essentiellement les formes bénignes de la grippe. Le diagnostic biologique se fait grâce à la mise en place […]
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Meningitis
Meningitis surveillance The bacteriology laboratory of the Pasteur Center of Cameroon is responsible for confirming suspected cases of meningitis in Cameroon. Weekly reports are sent to the Ministry of Public Health and various partners. In 2023, a total of 99 CSFs were analyzed at the Pasteur Center Annex in Garoua, of which 5 were positive. […]
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Poliomyélite
POLIO SURVEILLANCE ACTIVITIES (NAT LAB AND WHO INTER-COUNTRY) The Centre Pasteur du Cameroun is a national and inter-country laboratory for poliovirus surveillance in Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Sao Tome and Principe. Diagnosis is made using stool samples from children with Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) to detect wild poliovirus, vaccine-derived poliovirus, or vaccine-derived poliovirus. […]
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Rage
Rabies surveillance activities Rabies is endemic in Cameroon, and dogs are the primary vector of human rabies transmission. Only one sample from a suspected human rabies patient was received at the CPC in 2023 and tested negative following confirmatory testing. No biological analysis was performed on animal samples suspected of being rabid. Animal rabies In […]
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HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS surveillance activities The CPC houses the National Reference Laboratory for HIV viral load determination. The laboratory processed 21,392 HIV VL requests in 2023 compared to 24,313 in 2022, a decrease of 12.01%. Our expertise is used in HIV input quantification committees and all other issues related to HIV VL testing. The CPC is responsible […]
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Avian flu
Avian Flu Surveillance Activities The Cameroon Pasteur Center is mandated by the Ministry of Public Health and the WHO to conduct diagnostic tests for the detection of avian viruses. Between 2016 and 2017, Cameroon suffered an avian influenza epidemic with high poultry mortality in several outbreaks across the country in the Central, South, West, Adamawa, […]
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Yellow Fever
Yellow fever surveillance activities The CPC houses both the national laboratory for Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Sao Tome and Principe, and the Regional Reference Laboratory (RRL) for yellow fever for 10 countries in the WHO African Region. In its role as RRL, it provides training, technical support, quality control and quality assurance activities to the […]
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