The Pan-African Network for Rapid Research, Response, Relief and Preparedness for Infectious Diseases Epidemics (PANDORA ID-NET) is a ‘ONE Human and Animal HEALTH’ multidisciplinary consortium of 22 partner institutions (13 African and 9 European) started with 9 African and 4 European countries. Namely WEST AFRICA: Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Ghana; CENTRAL AFRICA: Republic of Congo and Gabon; EAST AFRICA: Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania; SOUTHERN AFRICA: Zambia. European countries are made up of: United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and France.
The Central Africa clinical research Network (CANTAM) was established in 2009 as one of the EDCTP regional network of excellence for developing health research capacities for clinical trials on tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, Malaria and neglected Tropical infections. It consisted of; Cameroon, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Zambia, and Germany, United Kingdom and The Netherlands.

The implementation of PANDORA-ID Net and CANTAM activities falls under 3 objectives of the SDGs: The first objective of the SDGs is to reduce poverty in all its forms and tuberculosis is a disease which increases the vulnerability of populations and has an enormous economic impact. Objective 3: well-being and health for all. Goal 17: partnership to achieve the goals.
Today, tuberculosis kills about 1.5 million people per year and only one partially effective vaccine is used to prevent this disease. The theme of World Tuberculosis Day, "Invest to end TB, save lives" echoes CANTAM and PANDORA's actions in investing in the surveillance of this disease by describing the level of resistance of MTB strains, improving laboratory infrastructure so that each country can culture MTB and inform national tuberculosis control programs appropriately.
As much as possible, a very close collaboration is established between researchers and health decision makers as well as the community.

For two years, the world has been living under the COVID-19 pandemic and many vaccines have been successfully developed and have helped reduce the threat. However, global funding for medical research on neglected diseases presented a 6% decrease from 2019 and for the first time over a decade, TB deaths increased in 2020. We call for the mobilization of all resources to end this disease because clinical trials are needed to test all existing vaccine candidates and perhaps identify the one that will stop the progression of this disease as it is preventable and curable.

Network publications for World TB Day

Ntoumi F, Nachega JB, Aklillu E, Chakaya J, Felker I, Amanullah F, Yeboah-Manu D, Castro KG, Zumla A World Tuberculosis Day 2022: aligning COVID-19 and tuberculosis innovations to save lives and to end tuberculosis. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 2022 Mar 3:S1473-3099(22)00142-6. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00142-6. PMID: 35248166

Petersen E, Al-Abri S, Chakaya J, Goletti D, Parolina L, Wejse C, Mucheleng'anga LA, Khalili SA, Yeboah-Manu D, Chanda-Kapata P, Nasiri MJ, Lungu PS, Maeurer M, Tiberi S, Ntoumi F, Battista-Migliori G, Zumla A. World TB Day 2022: Revamping and Reshaping Global TB Control Programs by Advancing Lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Infectious Diseases. Mar 3:S1201-9712(22)00138-2. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2022.02.057. Online ahead of print. PMID: 35248715.