October 26, 2018
Bulletin interne de l'Institut Pasteur
Portrait of a scientist in the International Network – Claude Flamand: predicting outbreaks with satellite images
Each month, the International Affairs Department will present the portrait of a scientist in the Institut Pasteur International Network. This monthly snapshot will offer a glimpse of the career, commitment and challenges – together with some choice anecdotes – of those whose efforts ensure that Pasteurian research reaches every continent worldwide.
The sixth portrait is of Claude Flamand, settled in Cayenne for 11 years, who heads the Epidemiology Unit at the Institut Pasteur de la Guyane. Since 2014, this epidemiologist and biostatistician works with the French National Centre for Space Studies to predict dengue epidemics in time and space thanks to satellite imaging.
"Car, helicopter, canoe, we used every possible means to reach people everywhere in French Guiana", Claude Flamand tells with passion the latest epidemiological survey he has just coordinated. This researcher is very keen on his double hat as a biostatistician and epidemiologist because the information he collects is adapted to the statistical analyzes he wants to achieve. Graduated in mathematical statistics applied to biology, Claude Flamand began his career at the the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance (InVS).