[The challenges of training in medical laboratories in Africa]

Sub-Saharan Africa has a considerable deficit in laboratory facilities. For a decade, international and national public and private initiatives have multiplied to expand both the supply and quality of medical laboratories in Africa. By 2020, the World Health Organization, with as its main operator the African Society for Laboratory Medicine, will have provided training for 30,000 laboratory personnel and encouraged 2,500 laboratories to begin the accreditation process. In addition, the World Health Organization recommendations for treatment and care of HIV-infected individuals in resource-limited settings, revised in 2013, emphasize the need for laboratory monitoring to guide antiretroviral therapy. The University Diploma in Biological Retrovirology at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal, offers multidisciplinary training in French at the postgraduate level in the complex and diverse field of biological monitoring of HIV infection in Africa. In nearly 10 years, more than 200 African biologists have been trained.