The Leke Project: raise awareness on vaginal health in Cameroon

Abstract

Research on vaginal microbiome is expanding worldwide. Increasingly, research is being directed towards remote countries or communities where microbiome data were previously non-existent, and this is sometimes accompanied by challenges in communication, recruiting participants, collecting samples, and even transporting and storing these samples. The Leke project is an Isala sister project carried out in Cameroon which aims to map the vaginal microbiome of healthy women and break the taboo around vaginal health. Particularly in the Leke project, we raised awareness about vaginal health and healthy practices in remote communities by including in the conversation to men and women. In this presentation, we will explain the challenges we faced and how we overcame them to research the vaginal microbiome. Link to Josiane’s blog about the project: https://isala.be/en/the-leke-project-a-journey-to-the-isala-sister-project-in-cameroon/