On 30 November 2021, a webinar was organized as part of the EDCTP2 funded project “Important data on Covid-19 profile in Africa” (AIDCO). The main objectives of the project are to determine the clinical outcome of Covid-19 infection at the participating African sites, to determine the pattern of infection in households of confirmed cases, to chart factors associated with Covid-19 infection and disease progression, to scale-up capacity for case and household contact studies and to establish a biobank of samples. Six institutions from five countries are part of the AIDCO consortium:

1. Centre de recherches médicales de Lambaréné (CERMEL), Gabon
2. Faculté de médecine - Université des sciences de la santé de Libreville (DPM-USS), Gabon
3. Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI), Ethiopia
4. Réseau africain de recherche sur le SIDA / Institut de recherche en santé, de surveillance épidémiologique et de formations (RARS/IRESSEF), Senegal
5. Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), the Netherlands
6. Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen (EKUT), Germany

More than forty young scientists, PhD students, as well as experienced researchers, clinicians and laboratory personnel from these institutions and other partner institutions (such as the University of Buea in Cameroon) joined the webinar to listen to the talks given by three researchers from the Institute of Tropical Medicine of the University of Tübingen, CERMEL and LUMC.

Prof. Thirumalaisamy P. Velavan, from EKUT, gave an update on epidemiology, diagnostics, treatment, vaccines and variants of concern. Prof. Bertrand Lell, from CERMEL and the Medical University of Vienna, gave a presentation focused on the state of Covid vaccination in Africa, followed by Dr. Simon Jochems, from LUMC, with his presentation “Mucosal immunity during hospitalized Covid-19” summarizing the results of a study on samples from hospitalized Covid-19 patients.
The webinar was opened at 10:00 am (CET) and closed three hours later by the consortium coordinator, Prof. Ayola Akim Adegnika (CERMEL).