University of Kinshasa (DRC) A memorial was made in honor of the late Professor Patrick Kayembe Kalambayi

During the International Planned Parenthood Conference 2022 held in Pattaya, Thailand; a memorial was made in honor of the late Professor Patrick Kayembe Kalambayi , one of the pioneers of family planning in the DRC. In the presence of global FP players, staff from Johns Hopkins and Tulane universities, donors, etc.

This was an opportunity to honor his memory by describing his objectives and achievements which largely contributed to laying the foundations of public health in the DRC. This tribute was said on behalf of the University of Kinshasa, by Professor Pierre Akilimali.

A graduate of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Kinshasa (1979), his career quickly turned to public health in the mid-1980s, when he began to get involved in research on HIV/AIDS. His first publications also date from the same period, including a pioneering article on HIV/AIDS in the DRC published in one of the major journals <Lancet> in 1984 as co-author with Dr Peter Piot, founder and honorary executive director of the UN AIDS.

A graduate of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University, where he successively obtained a master’s degree and then a doctorate in public health in 1997. Professor Patrick Kayembe has led several major national studies in the DRC such as as the integrated seroprevalence and behavioral surveillance of populations at high risk of HIV/AIDS, the evaluation of the delivery of health care services, the global study on young adolescents and also an investigator of the Performance Monitoring for Family Planning Access Action (2013-2020).