SIMBLE team visits CHU-YO in Burkina Faso

The visit was done well in advance before the actual start of the field study in September 2023, to introduce the study in the hospital and to get to know the local study team and laboratory. The coordinating team was warmly welcomed by the hospital director and administration and spent very fruitful time meeting all involved people (including a selection of the 13 clinical wards that will take samples). There was also a little bit of time left to pay a short visit to the minister of health to introduce the new collaboration between CHU-YO and ITM.

After starting the field study in Benin in the coming months, CHU-YO will start including participants for the SIMBLE project in September 2023. They will compare the Bactinsight blood culture system with the BD Bactec automate. To prepare for this, the team of CHU-YO has revived the blood culture surveillance by decreasing the price for a blood culture for the patient (from 10,000F to 1,500F) and sensibilising the hospital wards. Further, the needs of the laboratory were evaluated, which will be answered to before the study starts in six months.