ComBac-Africa consortium launches project in Guinea-Bissau
On Monday, 20 October 2025, members of the ComBac-Africa consortium convened in Guinea-Bissau for the project’s national kick-off meeting, marking an important milestone in one of ComBac-Africa’s key partner countries.
Charting ComBac-Africa’s mission for the next four years
More than 80 participants gathered at the Hotel Royal in Bissau to hear from Prof Aladje Baldé (Universidade Jean Piaget de Guinea Bissau – Instituto Piaget), project coordinator Prof Sören Becker (Saarland University), and scientific lead Prof Aaron Aboderin (Obafemi Awolowo University). Together, they outlined ComBac-Africa’s mission: tackling the growing threat of multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria (MDR GNB).
As our team highlighted in their presentations, these pathogens pose a severe risk to human, animal, and environmental health, particularly across Sub-Saharan Africa, where the burden of infectious disease is high and access to novel antibiotics remains limited. The ComBac-Africa consortium will work to bridge these critical gaps by developing needs-adapted diagnostic tools and antimicrobial stewardship programmes in Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, and Nigeria.
Over the course of the meeting, attendees were introduced to the project’s four-year workplan and gained insights into how the consortium will develop diagnostic-therapeutic algorithms to support targeted treatment in partner countries, as well as promote the equitable distribution of life-saving antibiotics. Our team also outlined plans for a clinical trial, a central component of the ComBac-Africa initiative that will evaluate the real-world impact of these strategies on the management of severe MDR GNB infections across participating countries.
Strengthening global collaboration
The event marked an important first step toward strengthening collaboration in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) within Guinea-Bissau and engage a wide network of national and international stakeholders. Attendees included representatives from Guinea-Bissau’s Ministry of Health, the National Institute of Public Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Union, and the directorate of Universidade Jean Piaget de Guinea Bissau’s hospital. The presence of the Spanish ambassador, delegates from the Portuguese embassy, and the German ambassador to Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, and The Gambia - alongside the head of Germany’s local diplomatic office in Bissau – also highlighted the strong international commitment to the ComBac-Africa project and the shared recognition that building global partnerships is essential to tackle the growing threat of AMR.
Building on the strong momentum and spirit of collaboration of the national kick-off meeting, our consortium will be busy in the coming months preparing for the roll-out of project activities in Guinea-Bissau - with more updates coming soon!
