Chipepo Kankasa, "the obsession with transmission".

With his gooseberry gown and 3-row epithet over his shoulder, the man addressing the audience in English exchanges a knowing glance with his colleague, seated opposite him in the anatomy amphitheater of the historic medicine building. 3 years ago, Philippe Vande Perre, a researcher and doctor in Montpellier, addressed this request to the University: " She [Chipepo Kankasa] has never received the international recognition that her remarkable life of commitment and struggle richly deserves. I hope that the University of Montpellier will remedy this injustice by awarding her an honorary doctorate. This is almost a done deal on this October afternoon, as the Montpellier Global Days continue, bringing together over 2000 African and French researchers.

Thirteen years of collaborations

The story of Philippe Vande Peer and Chipepo Kankasa is the kind of story we like to hear in science. It's the story of a friendship born on the sidelines of an international research program. In 2005, Philippe Vande Perre was Director of the Bacteriology and Virology Department at Montpellier University Hospital, and had just joined the PROMISE consortium, which brought together European and African universities, including Lusaka University in Zambia. The aim of the project? To conduct very active research on child health and mother-to-child transmission in the context of the HIV epidemic in Africa. " 15 years ago, the situation in Zambia was very difficult, with an infection rate among adults of childbearing age of 25% ", explains the Montpellier-born researcher.

Within this consortium, he met Chipepo Kankasa. At the time, she was Head of the Department of Pediatrics at Lusaka University Hospital, and a pioneer in pediatric AIDS care, thanks in particular to the brand-new Center of Excellence she had just founded. "As a doctor, researcher, African woman and mother, she threw herself into the battle for recognition of the right to care and access to antiretroviral treatment for children, at a time - the late 90s and early 2000s - when skepticism about the validity of access programs in a context of poverty was widespread, " recalls Philippe Vande Perre.

The great choices of my life

A journey as a doctor, researcher, African woman and mother, which she recounts with slides to her audience in Montpellier. Her childhood in a family widely recognized and respected for its pacifist fight for Zambian independence. Her marriage at 19, the birth of her first son at 20, then two more before her divorce at 26. " The biggest choices I made in my life were to entrust my sons to my mother and to embark on my medical studies, specializing in pediatrics," she recounts with emotion.

She began her studies in Zambia. She went on to specialize in pediatrics at Leningrad University, then in infectious diseases in Japan. After returning to her native country for a year, she went back to Miami to do a post-doctorate on pediatric AIDS. In 1999, she returned to her homeland and began work that would demonstrate " the feasibility and effectiveness of treating paediatric HIV infection, and which would serve as a basis for implementing integrated care programs throughout the African continent, in line with WHO recommendations ", explains Philippe Vande Perre.

A career in the epidemic

Three extremely important studies on breastfeeding in the context of an AIDS epidemic will emerge from this consortium, giving rise to some twenty scientific publications whose impact on international recommendations for the prevention and management of HIV infection in children is no longer in doubt. "Today, Zambia is one of the very few African countries that has almost succeeded in eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV, with a transmission rate of less than 5% ", adds the doctor.

In a context where the disease is still far from being eradicated, with 10% of adults of child-bearing age still infected, the care of HIV-infected children has benefited from the immense work accomplished by the center of excellence founded by Chipepo Kankasa in 2005. " She is a strong and extremely determined woman. To set up this center, which is to some extent her life's achievement and which, let's not forget, is unique in Africa, she was able to knock on the right doors and convince major financial backers."

Obsession with transmission

Today, this center specializing in the management of pediatric AIDS offers quality care to HIV-infected children, and also acts as a training center for management. " She has this obsession with passing on skills and so has brought up lots of young colleagues who have become pediatricians and specialists in pediatric infectious diseases. It's a really wonderful thing," observes her French colleague.

In the twilight of her clinical and academic career, Chipepo Kankasa is now focusing on raising the profile of her center in Lusaka, and trying to federate clinical and basic research within the same university-hospital structure, in order to pave the way for young researchers and healthcare professionals in her country. As she confided to the UM camera: " Sky is the limit ".