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Mini-Lab—MSF's simplified bacteriology laboratory for low-resource settings | Collections | MSF Science Portal

Resistance to antibiotics is a growing public health crisis, especially in countries with fragile health systems and in regions at war. One key limitation in most of these settings is a lack of clinical bacteriology laboratory capacity, which leaves medical providers without ways to accurately diagnose patient infections and to tailor antibiotic treatment accordingly.

To help fill this critical gap, MSF and partners have developed the Mini-Lab—a small-scale, standalone lab that is easy to transport, set up and operate by staff after only a short training. Its six modules are stocked with everything needed to diagnose common bloodstream and urinary tract infections and to perform antibiotic sensitivity testing using methods adapted to extremely hot climates and remote settings.

With Mini-Lab now being rolled out to selected MSF projects, here we highlight the background to its development and some of the research behind the bacteriological tests it incorporates.

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Medical and humanitarian harms of restrictive European migration policies
Medical and humanitarian harms of restrictive European migrat...
Conflict, persecution, poverty, food insecurity and natural disasters—increasingly fueled by climate change—continue to drive migration globally. Yet many wealthy countries are doubling down on hostile policies to prevent people from seeking safety within their borders, thereby subjecting them to a wide range of harms. In a newly-published report MSF focuses on European Union and member state policies that intensify exposure to violence, exploitation, risk of drowning at sea, disease, and lack of access to basic health care and shelter, both within European Union borders and beyond. The Collection linked below presents this report alongside selected publications illustrating the broader context, based on quantitative studies and accounts from MSF patients and medical teams over nearly a decade of operational experience along the European migration route. From violent, squalid detention centers in Libya— where people intercepted by the EU-supported Libyan coast guard are forcibly returned —to perilous Mediterranean crossings in flimsy rubber boats and often abysmal reception centers and camps within the EU, it documents how these policies and practices further harm highly vulnerable people seeking safety and protection.
Nursing care at MSF
Nursing care at MSF
Nurses spend more time at the bedside than any other healthcare workers and are a cornerstone of quality, person-centered clinical care in MSF health facilities. Through research, MSF has also shown that empowering nurses can also help expand patient access to care. In this collection, we highlight some of the evidence gathered on nurse-led care models at MSF projects, including through strategies that strengthen nurses through innovative training approaches and bedside tools.
Snake envenoming: a neglected crisis
Snake envenoming: a neglected crisis

Every year 2 million or more people fall victim to snakebite envenoming, mostly in poor, rural communities of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Between 83,000—138,000 of them die, while hundreds of thousands more suffer debilitating long-term complications or disabilities.


Although some antivenom medicines are highly effective when used promptly and appropriately, many snakebite victims get no treatment at all. Those who do may receive antivenoms which don’t work against the type of snake that bit them, or were not rigorously tested for safety and effectiveness.


To mark World Snakebite Awareness Day on September 19th, the Collection linked below brings together recent MSF work on this highly neglected disease. Several articles and conference presentations help fill evidence gaps on the burden of disease and its impacts or on treatment outcomes with specific antivenoms in specific regions. Others examine how to tackle the formidable challenges of availability and affordability, the absence of regulatory oversight for making, testing and registering antivenoms, and the anemic R&D pipeline for new products—all of which impede access for patients to safe, effective treatment tailored to local snake species.

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Journal Article
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Research

Validation of three MicroScan® antimicrobial susceptibility testing plates designed for low-resource settings

Ronat JB, Oueslati S, Natale A, Kesteman T, Elamin W,  et al.
2022-08-30 • Diagnostics
2022-08-30 • Diagnostics
Easy and robust antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) methods are essential in clinical bacteriology laboratories (CBL) in low-resource settings (LRS). We evaluated the Beckman Coul...
Journal Article
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Research

Biphasic versus monophasic manual blood culture bottles for low-resource settings: an in-vitro study

Ombelet S, Natale A, Ronat JB, Kesteman T, Vandenberg O,  et al.
2021-12-13 • Lancet Microbe
2021-12-13 • Lancet Microbe
BACKGROUND
Manual blood culture bottles (BCBs) are frequently used in low-resource settings. There are few BCB performance evaluations, especially evaluations comparing them with aut...
Journal Article
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Review

AMR in low-resource settings: Médecins Sans Frontières bridges surveillance gaps by developing a turnkey solution, the Mini-Lab

Ronat JB, Natale A, Kesteman T, Andremont A, Elamin W,  et al.
2021-10-01 • Clinical Microbiology and Infection
2021-10-01 • Clinical Microbiology and Infection
BACKGROUND
In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), data related to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are often inconsistently collected. Humanitarian, private and non-governmental ...
Conference Material
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Video

Development of an all-in-one transportable clinical bacteriology laboratory: Feedback from testing the MSF Mini-Lab development project in Haiti

Ronat JB
2021-08-25 • MSF Scientific Days Asia 2021
2021-08-25 • MSF Scientific Days Asia 2021
Journal Article
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Research

Evaluation of MicroScan bacterial identification panels for low-resource settings

Ombelet S, Natale A, Ronat JB, Vandenberg O, Hardy L,  et al.
2021-02-19 • Diagnostics
2021-02-19 • Diagnostics
Bacterial identification is challenging in low-resource settings (LRS). We evaluated the MicroScan identification panels (Beckman Coulter, Brea, CA, USA) as part of Médecins Sans Frontiè...
Journal Article
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Commentary

The Mini-Lab: accessible clinical bacteriology for low-resource settings

Natale A, Ronat JB, Mazoyer A, Rochard A, Boillot B,  et al.
2020-06-01 • Lancet Microbe
2020-06-01 • Lancet Microbe
Journal Article
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Commentary

Antibiotic resistance in conflict settings: lessons learned in the Middle East

Kanapathipillai R, Malou N, Hopman J, Bowman C, Yousef N,  et al.
2019-04-10 • Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
2019-04-10 • Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has designed context-adapted antibiotic resistance (ABR) responses in countries across the Middle East. There, some health systems have been severely damag...
Journal Article
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Commentary

Clinical bacteriology in low-resource settings: today's solutions

Ombelet S, Ronat JB, Walsh T, Yansouni CP, Cox J,  et al.
2018-03-05 • Lancet Infectious Diseases
2018-03-05 • Lancet Infectious Diseases
Low-resource settings are disproportionately burdened by infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance. Good quality clinical bacteriology through a well functioning reference laborat...
Mini-Lab—MSF's simplified bacteriology laboratory for low-resource settings

Mini-Lab—MSF's simplified bacteriology laboratory for low-resource settings