Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
10BAMAKO44
2010-01-27 14:31:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Bamako
Cable title:  

DEPUTY NIAID DIRECTOR MEETS WITH PRESIDENT AMADOU

Tags:  SOCI NIH ML 
pdf how-to read a cable
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FM AMEMBASSY BAMAKO
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RHMFISS/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
C O N F I D E N T I A L BAMAKO 000044 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/26/2021
TAGS: SOCI NIH ML
SUBJECT: DEPUTY NIAID DIRECTOR MEETS WITH PRESIDENT AMADOU
TOUQNI TOURE

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Peter Henry Barlerin, for reasons 1.4
(b) (d).


C O N F I D E N T I A L BAMAKO 000044

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/26/2021
TAGS: SOCI NIH ML
SUBJECT: DEPUTY NIAID DIRECTOR MEETS WITH PRESIDENT AMADOU
TOUQNI TOURE

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Peter Henry Barlerin, for reasons 1.4
(b) (d).



1. (C) On January 13, Charge and the Deputy Director of the
National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases
(NIAID),Dr. Hugh Auchincloss, met with Malian President
Amadou Toumani Toure (ATT). ATT was accompanied by the
Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Mrs.
Siby Ginette Bellegarde , and by the Rector of the University
of Bamako, Professor Amadou DIALLO. The U.S. delegation
included Ms. Elaine LaMontagne, the widow of former NIAID
Deputy Director John LaMontagne, who died in 2004 shortly
after a visit to Mali, NIAID Director of Intramural Research
Dr. Kathryn Zoon, NIH Resident Scientist in Mali Dr. Richard
Sakai, NIAID's Dr. Robert Gwadz, and Dr. Ydrissa Sow, NIH
Coordinator in Mali.

TWENTY YEARS OF FRUITFUL COLLABORATION


2. (C) ATT said he wished Mrs. LaMontagne a warm welcome.
"I knew your husband," he said, "he was a remarkable person."
ATT noted that he had been very impressed by the research on
malaria and other infectious diseases carried out between
NIAID and the University of Bamako at Point G. Dr.
Auchincloss said the large delegation had come to celebrate
not only the 20th anniversary of collaboration with the
University of Bamako but also to be among the first to mark
the 50th anniversary of the year of the Republic of Mali's
independence.


3. (C) He said that following on the work of his predecessor,
he is trying to keep the partnership one of equals. Priority
illnesses are identified by Malian scientists, and it is
Malian scientists who design the experiment protocols. In
the past two decades, NIAID has paid for scores of promising
young Malian scientists to study at universities in the
United States, Europe, and Canada, where they obtain master's
degrees, doctorates, and medical degrees. It is a remarkable
fact, Dr. Auchincloss stated, that almost every one of these
Malians has returned home to Mali after their studies.


4. (C) Auchincloss said NIAID and the University of Bamako's
collaboration at the Malaria Research and Training Center
(MRTC) has focused on vaccine development and mosquito vector
research. In 2002, based on the experience with the MRTC,
the University formed an NIAID-sponsored International Center
for Excellence in Research (ICER),one of only three of its
kind in the world. The goal of the ICER is to create
locally-managed, sustainable research and training programs.
Dr. Auchincloss called the Mali ICER a jewel for NIAID. In
2006, NIAID also set up with the University of Bamako the
center for Research and Training on HIV and Tuberculosis
(SEREFO).

INAUGURATION OF VACCINE RESEARCH SITE


5. (C) In addition to marking the two important
anniversaries, Auchincloss noted, the NIAID team had come to
baptize the clinical field research site in the village of
Bancoumana. The Bancoumana site, where a malaria vaccine
trial is being conducted, has been named for Dr. John
LaMontagne. ATT said he had watched the inauguration of the
Bancoumana site on national television the night before, had
heard from the Minister of Higher Education that a baby had
been born at the center's clinic while the ceremony was
taking place, and understood that the baby was named for John
LaMontagne. He noted that there were already two people in
the room who had received the Malian Legion of Honor medal --
Dr. Sakai and Dr. Gwadz -- and that in recognition of Dr.
LaMontagne's contribution to the Malian people, he intended
to decorate him posthumously, via Mrs. LaMontagne. "We don't
have a lot of means," he said, "but it is the least we can
do." Mrs. LaMontagne said she was deeply touched, and
thanked the President for his gesture.

MEETING WITH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT


6. (C) Earlier in the day, Charge, Dr. Auchincloss and the
rest of the delegation paid a courtesy call on the President
of the National Assembly, Dioncounda Traore. Traore, a
mathmetician by training, said that a lot of development
partners stay in their offices in the West, formulating
recommendations as to what Malians should do, "without ever
getting to know us or our problems." He said the hands-on
approach was what differentiated NIAID from many others.


7. (C) Traore said he would try to do a better job of
letting the people of Mali know what NIAID and its team of
scientists are doing. He noted that he could not begin to

express the same natural enthusiasm that the children of
Bancoumana showed at the previous day's ceremony, but said
"Our responsibility as elected officials is to make this
success known to the rest of the people of Mali." Dr.
Auchincloss invited Dr. Traore to consider a visit to the
National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, and in the
interim, to visit the NIH/University of Bamako site at Point

G.
BARLERIN