From the 24.02. to 08.03.2020 three members of the German ANDEMIA team from RKI spent two weeks at the partner site “Centre Muraz” and “Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Souro Sanou” at Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso.

As the previous stay in Côte d’Ivoire the main focus of the trip was retraining of enrolment staff and quality assurance in laboratory practices. This included pre-analytics such as proper blood sampling procedures and avoiding contamination in blood culture (training video), as well as individual training and reassessment of laboratory practices in both molecular and bacteriological testing. On the molecular testing side, the validation of results was re-evaluated and focused on. On the bacteriological side, the team from RKI emphasized the use of API galleries for bacteria identification with an introduction to the APIweb system. Lastly, several meetings for the start of enrolment of healthy controls were organized to discuss last organizational questions and to successfully launch enrolment in Burkina Faso.