scholarly journals Dengue in western Uganda: A prospective cohort of children presenting with undifferentiated febrile illness

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross M. Boyce ◽  
Matthew Collins ◽  
Rabbison Muhindo ◽  
Regina Nakakande ◽  
Emily J Ciccone ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rapid Test ◽  
Febrile Illness ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Urban Site ◽  
Igg Antibodies ◽  
Rt Pcr ◽  
Elisa Testing ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Western Uganda ◽  
Ecological Suitability

Background: The spatial distribution and burden of dengue in sub-Saharan Africa remains highly uncertain, despite high levels of ecological suitability. The goal of this study was to describe the epidemiology of dengue among a cohort of febrile children presenting to outpatient facilities located in areas of western Uganda with differing levels of urbanicity and malaria transmission intensity. Methods: Eligible children were first screened for malaria using rapid diagnostic tests. Children with a negative malaria result were tested for dengue using a combination NS1/IgM/IgG rapid test (SD Bioline Dengue Duo). Confirmatory testing by RT-PCR was performed in a subset of participants. Antigen-capture ELISA was performed to estimate seroprevalence. Results: Only 6 of 1,416 (0.42%) children had a positive dengue rapid test, while none of the RT-PCR results were positive. ELISA testing demonstrated reactive IgG antibodies in 28 (2.2%) participants with the highest prevalence seen at the urban site in Mbarara (19 of 392, 4.9%, p<0.001). Conclusions: Overall, these findings suggest that dengue, while present, is an uncommon cause of non-malarial, pediatric febrile illness in western Uganda. Further investigation into the eocological factors that sustain low-level transmission in urban settings are urgently needed to reduce the risk of epidemics.

scholarly journals Dengue in Western Uganda: a prospective cohort of children presenting with undifferentiated febrile illness

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross M. Boyce ◽  
Matthew Collins ◽  
Rabbison Muhindo ◽  
Regina Nakakande ◽  
Emily J. Ciccone ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rapid Test ◽  
Febrile Illness ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Urban Site ◽  
Igg Antibodies ◽  
Rt Pcr ◽  
Elisa Testing ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Western Uganda ◽  
Ecological Suitability

Abstract Background The spatial distribution and burden of dengue in sub-Saharan Africa remains highly uncertain, despite high levels of ecological suitability. The goal of this study was to describe the epidemiology of dengue among a cohort of febrile children presenting to outpatient facilities located in areas of western Uganda with differing levels of urbanicity and malaria transmission intensity. Methods Eligible children were first screened for malaria using rapid diagnostic tests. Children with a negative malaria result were tested for dengue using a combination NS1/IgM/IgG rapid test (SD Bioline Dengue Duo). Confirmatory testing by RT-PCR was performed in a subset of participants. Antigen-capture ELISA was performed to estimate seroprevalence. Results Only 6 of 1416 (0.42%) children had a positive dengue rapid test, while none of the RT-PCR results were positive. ELISA testing demonstrated reactive IgG antibodies in 28 (2.2%) participants with the highest prevalence seen at the urban site in Mbarara (19 of 392, 4.9%, p < 0.001). Conclusions Overall, these findings suggest that dengue, while present, is an uncommon cause of non-malarial, pediatric febrile illness in western Uganda. Further investigation into the eocological factors that sustain low-level transmission in urban settings are urgently needed to reduce the risk of epidemics.

scholarly journals PO 8581 ZOONOTIC VIRAL ANTIGENS SURVEILLANCE IN HEALTHY POPULATIONS LIVING IN LAMBARÉNÉ, GABON

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (Suppl 3) ◽  
pp. A58.2-A58
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Bache ◽  
Marguerite M Loembe ◽  
Selidji T Agnandji
Keyword(s):  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Vaccine Trial ◽  
Viral Rna ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
Rt Pcr ◽  
Zoonotic Infections ◽  
Viral Antigens ◽  
Sub Saharan

BackgroundWorldwide, viral zoonotic infections such as filoviruses, flaviviruses, nairoviruses and arenaviruses cause self-limiting to severe diseases. They are endemic in sub-Saharan Africa, causing sporadic outbreaks warranting the development of sustainable surveillance systems. In Gabon, Ebola outbreaks occurred from 1994 to 2002 causing 214 human cases and 150 deaths, while Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya virus outbreaks occurred between 2007 and 2010. Beyond these outbreaks, little is known about the epidemiology. Recently, in collaboration with the Japanese government, the Research and Health Ministries of Gabon supported the implementation of a biosecurity level-3 (BSL-3) laboratory at CERMEL in Lambaréné as a zoonotic disease surveillance unit. Start-off involved antigen detection and characterisation of circulating antibodies to targeted viral antigens in healthy populations. This study reports data from healthy participants (18–50 years) in a phase I rVSV-ZEBOV-GP Ebola vaccine trial.MethodsHundred-six (106) baseline samples were screened for Ebola, Dengue (serotypes) 1–4 and Chikungunya viral RNA by RT-PCR on serum. IgG ELISA on plasma was used to identify antibodies against: Zaire-Ebola-(EBOV-GP and EBOV-VP40), Marburg-(MARV-GP and MARV-VP40), Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever-(CCHFV-GP), Lasa-(LASV-GPC and LASV-NP), Yellow Fever-(YFV-NS1), West-Nile-(WNV-NS1), Zika virus-(ZIKV-NS1), Chikungunya-(CHIKV-VLP) and Dengue-(DENV1-NS1,DENV2-NS1,DENV3-NS1,DENV4-NS1) virus antigens.ResultsNo viral RNA was isolated by RT-PCR in 106 samples. About 9% (10/106), 3% (3/106), 6% (6/106), 24% (25/106), 51% (54/106), 38% (40/106) and 36% (38/106) participants were seropositive for antibodies specific to EBOV-GP, MARV-GP, CCHFV-GP, YFV-NS1, WNV-NS1, ZIKV-NS1 and CHIKV-VLP, respectively. Twelve percent (12%; 13/106) of participants possessed antibodies specific to Zika, Chikungunya and Dengue 1–4 antigens. Six percent (6%; 6/106) of participants were seropositive for EBOV-GP and CCHFV-GP.ConclusionWe found antibodies to viral zoonotic infections among our healthy volunteers. Further assays, including neutralisation assays are being performed to ascertain the specificity of the antibodies. These findings, once confirmed, will provide insights into disease surveillance, vaccine trial designs, evaluation of post-vaccine immune responses, variability in adverse events and overall disease transmission patterns.

scholarly journals Febrile Illness Evaluation in a Broad Range of Endemicities (FIEBRE): protocol for a multisite prospective observational study of the causes of fever in Africa and Asia

BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. e035632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi Hopkins ◽  
Quique Bassat ◽  
Clare IR Chandler ◽  
John A Crump ◽  
Nicholas A Feasey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Blood Sample ◽  
Venous Blood ◽  
Febrile Illness ◽  
Clinical Diagnostics ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Venous Blood Sample ◽  
Open Access Journals ◽  
Sub Saharan

IntroductionFever commonly leads to healthcare seeking and hospital admission in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. There is only limited guidance for clinicians managing non-malarial fevers, which often results in inappropriate treatment for patients. Furthermore, there is little evidence for estimates of disease burden, or to guide empirical therapy, control measures, resource allocation, prioritisation of clinical diagnostics or antimicrobial stewardship. The Febrile Illness Evaluation in a Broad Range of Endemicities (FIEBRE) study seeks to address these information gaps.Methods and analysisFIEBRE investigates febrile illness in paediatric and adult outpatients and inpatients using standardised clinical, laboratory and social science protocols over a minimum 12-month period at five sites in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeastern and Southern Asia. Patients presenting with fever are enrolled and provide clinical data, pharyngeal swabs and a venous blood sample; selected participants also provide a urine sample. Laboratory assessments target infections that are treatable and/or preventable. Selected point-of-care tests, as well as blood and urine cultures and antimicrobial susceptibility testing, are performed on site. On day 28, patients provide a second venous blood sample for serology and information on clinical outcome. Further diagnostic assays are performed at international reference laboratories. Blood and pharyngeal samples from matched community controls enable calculation of AFs, and surveys of treatment seeking allow estimation of the incidence of common infections. Additional assays detect markers that may differentiate bacterial from non-bacterial causes of illness and/or prognosticate illness severity. Social science research on antimicrobial use will inform future recommendations for fever case management. Residual samples from participants are stored for future use.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval was obtained from all relevant institutional and national committees; written informed consent is obtained from all participants or parents/guardians. Final results will be shared with participating communities, and in open-access journals and other scientific fora. Study documents are available online (https://doi.org/10.17037/PUBS.04652739).

scholarly journals Development of a Novel Cocktail Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay and a Field-Applicable Lateral-Flow Rapid Test for Diagnosis of Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (6) ◽  
pp. 1557-1565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Heller ◽  
Nimmo Gicheru ◽  
Georgina Tjipura-Zaire ◽  
Cecilia Muriuki ◽  
Mingyan Yu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immunosorbent Assay ◽  
Rapid Test ◽  
Lateral Flow ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay ◽  
Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia ◽  
Serum Samples ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mycoplasma Mycoides ◽  
Sub Saharan

Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) is a severe respiratory disease that is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa. It is caused byMycoplasma mycoidessubsp.mycoides, a bacterium belonging to theMycoplasma mycoidescluster. In the absence of an efficient CBPP vaccine, improved and easy-to-use diagnostic assays for recurrent testing combined with isolation and treatment of positive animals represent an option for CBPP control in Africa. Here we describe the comprehensive screening of 17 immunogenicMycoplasma mycoidessubsp.mycoidesproteins using well-characterized bovine sera for the development of a novel cocktail enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for laboratory use. Two recombinantMycoplasmaimmunogens, MSC_0136 and MSC_0636, were used to set up a standardized cocktail ELISA protocol. According to the results from more than 100 serum samples tested, the sensitivity and specificity of the novel cocktail ELISA were 85.6% and 96.4%, respectively, with an overall diagnostic accuracy comparable to that of the Office International des Epizooties (OIE)-prescribed serological assays. In addition, we provide a proof of principle for a field-applicable, easy-to-use commercially produced prototype lateral-flow test for rapid (<30-min) diagnosis of CBPP.

scholarly journals Local responses to a forest park in western Uganda: alternate narratives on fortress conservation

Oryx ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Hartter ◽  
Abraham Goldman
Keyword(s):  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Large Majority ◽  
External Control ◽  
Economic Returns ◽  
Forest Park ◽  
Local Responses ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Forest Parks ◽  
Western Uganda

AbstractMost research on attitudes to parks in sub-Saharan Africa has been in savannah regions and areas of low population density. Expulsion, exclusion and the imposition of external control are dominant themes, resulting in negative responses to parks, particularly those that represent hard-edged so-called fortress conservation. Our research in the densely populated area around a mid altitude forest park in western Uganda found an alternate narrative in which, despite its hard-edged fortress features, most people view Kibale National Park favourably. Based on a geographically random sample in two agricultural areas neighbouring the Park, our results indicate that most households felt they benefit from the Park and only a small proportion cited negative impacts. Rather than direct economic returns, the benefits most commonly noted by respondents can be characterized as ecosystem services. Most individual respondents and a large majority of the local political leaders said that the Park should continue to exist. Crop raiding by animals from the Park is a problem in some locations but resource restrictions and expulsion were not widely cited by our respondents. The fact that the large majority of residents migrated to the area after the Park was established may be an important explanatory factor for these responses, and this is also likely to be the case for many other mid altitude tropical forest parks, the demographic and land-use histories of which differ from those around many savannah parks.

scholarly journals First Report of the Green Rosette Variant of Groundnut Rosette Disease in Kenya

Plant Disease ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 83 (8) ◽  
pp. 782-782 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. W. Wangai ◽  
S. S. Pappu ◽  
H. R. Pappu ◽  
N. Okoko ◽  
C. M. Deom ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Satellite Rna ◽  
Rt Pcr ◽  
Crop Season ◽  
Production Constraints ◽  
Pcr Product ◽  
Arachis Hypogaea L ◽  
Disease Surveys ◽  
Polymerase Chain ◽  
Sub Saharan

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important food crop in sub-Saharan Africa. One of the major production constraints is groundnut rosette disease, which is caused by a complex of two viruses, groundnut rosette assistor luteovirus (GRAV) and groundnut rosette umbravirus (GRV) together with the associated satellite RNA (satRNA) (1). Two main forms of the disease have been described: chlorotic and the green rosette. Variants of the satRNA have been shown to be largely responsible for the different forms of the disease (1). Chlorotic rosette has been the predominant form in all of sub-Saharan Africa while green rosette has been reported in the western and southern regions of Africa (2). During the 1997-1998 crop season, disease surveys conducted in Kenya showed the incidence of the rosette disease in farmers' fields to be 24 to 40% in a total of 23 fields surveyed in the western regions of the country (Homabay, Kendubay, Kisumu) and 30% in 8 fields sampled in the Rift Valley (Cheplamus, Marigat) regions. Representative peanut plants showing rosette symptoms were analyzed for the presence of GRV by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). With primers specific to a portion of ORF4 of GRV RNA (3), RT-PCR gave a product of expected size (approximately 300 bp). The PCR product was cloned in pGEM-T vector and sequenced. The sequenced region showed 89% nucleotide sequence identity with published GRV sequences. Green rosette was observed on groundnut cultivars Nyaela Red and Homabay Local in the Kendu Bay region. The incidence of the green rosette was 5.3% of the plants with rosette symptoms. References: (1) A. F. Murant and I. K. Kumar. Ann. Appl. Biol. 117:85, 1990. (2) R. A. Naidu et al. Ann. Appl. Biol. 132:525, 1998. (3). M. E. Taliansky et al. J. Gen. Virol. 77:2335, 1996.

scholarly journals Detection of NS1 antigen, IgM and IgG antibodies using a commercial Dengue rapid test kit for the diagnosis of dengue infection in patients with acute febrile illness

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-238
Author(s):  
Nalamanda Suma ◽  
T Sarada
Keyword(s):  
Solid Phase ◽  
Serological Test ◽  
Dengue Infection ◽  
Rapid Test ◽  
Febrile Illness ◽  
Acute Febrile Illness ◽  
Igg Antibodies ◽  
Igm Antibody ◽  
Test Kit ◽  
Ns1 Antigen

Dengue is an endemic arboviral illness. With the increasing incidence of dengue infection, an early diagnostic confirmation of dengue infection in patients facilitates timely clinical intervention, etiological investigation, and disease control. Objective of this study was to evaluate a commercially available serological test kit - Dengue Day 1 Test. This is for the detection of dengue NS1 antigen, differential detection of IgM and IgG antibodies on a single acute serum sample. Atotal of 100 patients with acute febrile illness were included in this study. Serum samples were analysed for Dengue NS1 Ag, IgM & IgG Antibodies using a commercially available Dengue Day 1 Test, rapid solid phase immuno-chromatographic test.As many as 23 (23%) samples were NS1 positive and 17 (17%) samples were positive for IgM antibodies. Based on the combination of dengue NS1 antigen and IgM antibody test, total of 34 patients (34%) were positive for dengue virus infection.Results of the study suggested that a combination of dengue NS1 antigen and IgM antibody tests would increase the rate of detection of dengue illness. This combination would increase the efficacy and aid in early diagnosis of dengue infection.

scholarly journals The epidemiology of febrile illness in sub-Saharan Africa: implications for diagnosis and management

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (8) ◽  
pp. 808-814 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.J. Maze ◽  
Q. Bassat ◽  
N.A. Feasey ◽  
I. Mandomando ◽  
P. Musicha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Febrile Illness ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Diagnosis And Management ◽  
Sub Saharan

The poverty alleviation potential of tourism employment as an off-farm activity on the local livelihoods surrounding Kibale National Park, western Uganda

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bright Adiyia ◽  
Dominique Vanneste ◽  
Anton Van Rompaey
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Livelihood Strategies ◽  
Kibale National Park ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Farm Income ◽  
Continuous Growth ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Local Livelihoods ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Western Uganda

Over the past decade, several scholars have argued that livelihood diversification in terms of off-farm activities is key for rural households to escape from poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Although the continuous growth of tourism in many SSA countries has created an additional off-farm income activity, empirical evidence is lacking to substantiate the poverty alleviating impact of tourism employment as being consistent and universal at the household level. Using the case of Kibale National Park in western Uganda, the aims of this paper are (1) to analyze the actual income composition of different types of rural livelihood strategies by means of cluster analysis, and (2) to compare the financial impact of tourism employment with alternative off-farm income activities. Results show a large differentiation in income compositions of households around Kibale National Park. In general, households engaged in off-farm income activities have higher levels of overall household welfare. Tourism employment generates low incomes compared to alternative off-farm activities, but still enables households to strengthen livelihood strategies by investments in on-farm or alternative off-farm activities.

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