A Path Analysis to Identify Factors Influencing the Provision of Water in Addition to Breast Milk by Mothers of Infants under Six Months of Age in Conakry and Kindia Regions, Republic of Guinea

Water provision to infants under six months of age (IU6M) can hamper exclusive breastfeeding (EBF). Understanding factors and their relationships influencing this practice is needed to tailor EBF promotion programs. Using a validated questionnaire, this study aims to identify pathways in which individual factors and the environment interact to affect the provision of water in addition to breast milk among 300 mothers of IU6M. Our finding shows that 75% of mothers intended to provide water in addition to breast milk to their IU6M and that about 60% reported doing it. Results of the final path show that the subjective norm/SN (β = 0.432, p < 0.001), the attitude (β = 0.349, p < 0.001), and to a lesser extent the perceived control/PC (β = 0.141, p = 0.005) predict the intention of mothers to provide water in addition to breast milk to their IU6M. The environment scores predict the attitude (β = 0.210, p = 0.001) and the SN (β = 0.284, p < 0.001). Having the mother practicing early breastfeeding initiation at birth positively predicted the PC score (β = 0.157, p = 0.017) and predicted an increasing score of SN (β = 0.221, p = 0.003). Even though predicting the final behavior is complex, this research provides directions to nutrition education programs to tailor their content to the context and be more efficient in reducing the proportion of women providing water to their IU6M, hence contributing to the improvement of EBF.

La donna in Africa e il suo ruolo educativo in seno alla famiglia: un possibile baluardo contro la radicalizzazione dei più giovani? Il caso della regione sahelo-sahariana

Starting from the relationship, conjugated to the feminine, “family education-prevention of youth radicalism” and based on the research I have been conducting for ten years in countries such as Mali, Senegal and the Republic of Guinea, I intend to proceed with a speech of an anthropological nature with the aim of offering some paths of comparison for those who work at a pedagogical level, within realities marked by cultural hybridization and immigration.

Statistical Distribution of Lassa Fever in Edo State, Nigeria

Lassa fever is a severe viral infection caused by the Lassa virus and spread by contact with excretions or secretions of infected rats gaining access to food and water inside human houses and other human activity areas. Sierra Leone, the Republic of Guinea, Nigeria, and Liberia are among the nations where it is endemic with a high number of deaths recorded yearly due to Lassa fever. In Nigeria, one of the states with the highest incidence is Edo. In order to reduce and predict the spread of Lassa fever in Edo state, the trend of the disease needs to be understood. Knowledge of the statistical distribution of a disease is one of the best ways to understand the trend of the disease. Currently, existing research on the statistical distribution of Lassa fever is very rare. The present work is an attempt to initiate research on the statistical distribution of Lassa fever with data obtained on weekly cases of Lassa Fever in Edo State, Nigeria. Based on the Kolmogorov Smirnoff and Anderson Darling’s goodness of fit test for fitting distribution, the Geometric distribution outfitted the weekly confirmed incidences of Lassa fever in Edo State, Nigeria when compared with the Discrete Uniform and Poisson distributions. The study further revealed that on the average, two Lassa fever cases is recorded per week in Edo State within the study period. This number of cases per week is on the high side and should be immediately looked into.

Study of the prevalence of antibodies to some arboviruses in the population of the Republic of Guinea

Introduction. Acute febrile diseases kill more than 250,000 people annually in West Africa. Malaria and typhoid fever traditionally occupy most of the total structure of registered fevers. However, these data do not fully reflect the true overall disease patterns in the West African region. This is due to the fact that diagnosis is mainly based on the clinical signs of the infectious process, suggesting that a certain number of diseases may be caused by arboviruses. The detection of specific antibodies (ABs) to infectious pathogens in the blood sera of residents of a particular area is a reliable indicator of the circulation of these pathogens in a particular territory.The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of antibodies to a number of arboviruses: Dengue (DENV), West Nile (WNV) (family Flaviviridae), Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (orthonairo)virus (CCHFV), Batai (Batai virus), Bhanja (BHAV) (order Bunyavirales), Chikungunya (CHIKV), and Sindbis (SINV) (family Togaviridae) in the population of the Republic of Guinea.Material and methods. In total, a panel of 2,620 blood serum samples from people living in all landscape and geographical areas of Guinea was collected for the study. Detection of IgG antibodies was performed using an enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA).Results. In total, ABs to Batai virus were detected in 144 samples (5.5%), BHAV in 58 (2.2%), WNV in 892 (34.0 %), DENV in 659 (25.2 %), CCHFV in 58 (2.2 %), CHIKV in 339 (12.9 %), and SINV in 52 samples (2.0 %).Discussion. The obtained results indicate serological evidence of the spectrum of arboviruses in the population of all landscape and geographical zones of the Republic of Guinea, confirming their active circulation in this territory.Conclusion. Given the high epidemiological significance of arbovirus infectious diseases, it is an urgent task to continue studying its share in the structure of febrile diseases in the territory of the Republic of Guinea.

Creation and Support of Operation of a Hospital Net to Treat COVID-19 Patients in Guinea

The paper provides information on the construction, development and functioning of a hospital network for the detection and treatment of patients with dangerous infectious diseases in the Republic of Guinea. With the support of UC RUSAL and with the assistance of the Ministry of Health of Guinea, hospitals have been established to provide medical care to patients suspected of COVID-19. Sick persons are admitted from regional hospitals from all over country. The majority of the hospitalized persons are patients with mild and moderate forms of the disease. Diagnostic studies using RT-PCR to detect SARS-CoV-2 virus RNA are carried out at the premises of stationary (Kindia) and mobile (Fria) laboratories. Testing of the received samples is carried out using diagnostic preparations of domestic and foreign production. This stage of work is performed by employees of the Rospotrebnadzor institutions (the Russian Federation) working on the territory of the Republic of Guinea. In total, since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 630 patients have received treatment in the stated hospitals; more than 20 thousand tests of clinical material samples have been conducted to detect the RNA of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In addition to residents of Guinea, medical assistance was provided to citizens of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, India, Sierra Leone, and the Comoros. The organization of the network of hospitals and their inclusion into the national system for counteracting the spread of new coronavirus infection allowed us to begin active work on the identifcation and treatment of COVID-19 patients in the territory of the Republic of Guinea and make a signifcant contribution to the fght against the epidemic.

2019–2020 measles in the Republic of Guinea: epidemic features and herd immunity

Introduction. In connection with the Ebola epidemic in the West African countries, including the Republic of Guinea, a failure in implementing measles immunization program was noted. A proportion of measles seronegative subjects in 2017 was 52.4% of total examined individuals. In 2018, a high proportion of measles cases among children aged 1–5 years (61.6%) was identified. In order to stop the 2018 outbreak, the Supplemental Immunization Campaign was conducted in the Konakri and Nzerekore prefectures in the Republic of Guinea. The aim of this study was to examine the 2019–2020 measles epidemic situation and assess the measles population immunity in the Republic of Guinea. Materials and methods. Measles-specific antibodies were examined in 1697 blood serum samples collected from residents of different regions of the Republic of Guinea, aged from 7 months to 76 years, obtained in 2019–2020, and tested retrospectively. The ELISA test systems Anti-Measles Virus ELISA (IgM) Euroimmun and Anti-Measles Virus ELISA (IgG) Euroimmun (Germany) were used. The presence of serum IgM measles antibodies was considered as acute measles infection. Statistical analysis was performed using the software package Statistica 6.0. Results. Blood sera (n = 638) were tested for IgM-measles, and in 46.6% of cases the diagnosis was confirmed by laboratory tests. The biggest proportion of the total cases (61.6%) was found in children aged 1–4 years. The second most important age group was 5–9 years of age, the third is children under 1 year: 18.5% and 11.8% of the total number of patients, respectively. Measles infection was registered in vaccinated patients in 7.4% of the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases. 1059 subjects were examined for IgG measles antibody. The lowest seroprevalence rate was found among children under 4 years of age (47.8%). The highest (85.5%) was found among subjects of 40 years old and older. Conclusion. Measles in GR remains a poorly controlled infection. As in the previous years of observation (2017–2018), children under 5 years of age are the most vulnerable cohort of the population, despite the 2018 DI campaign conducted in a number of GR territories. More problems with the measles control in the Republic of Guinea are expected in the period from 2021, as along with the COVID-19 epidemic, Ebola is repeatedly registered in the country. The Republic of Guinea particularly requires assistance from the international community to implement the WHO measles elimination program on a global scale.

Hormonal sex reversal technique of Oreochromis niloticus larvae in a tank in the Urban Commune of Kankan, Republic of Guinea

Hormonal sex - reversal is widely recognized as having significant advantage over both manual sexing and hybridization. The present study carried out in the aquaculture center of Kankan aimed at producing monosex male fry of Oreochromis niloticus in order to increase the yield of this species. During this study, 95 Oreochromis niloticus broodstock including 21 males and 74 females were paired (spawned) in a spawning tank of 135 m2 surface for 15 days. The respective mean weights of the spawners were 448.6 ±157.7 g for males and 406.7±115.9 g for females. Hormonal treatment was performed on 900 larvae with an average initial weight of 0.028 g from the 10th post fertilization to the 38th day in a tank of one (1) m3. The larvae were fed with 1 kg of imported "Raanan Premium Fish" powdered feed titrated with 40% protein, mixed in a hormonal solution containing 17-α-methyltestosterone and 90% ethanol with respective doses of 100 mg and 500 ml. At the end of hormonal treatment, 578 fry with a final average weight of 4.5 g were conducted in a pre-pregnancy tank with a surface area of 50 m2 for 30 days and yielded at the end of pre-pregnancy 501 fry with a final average weight of 13 g, a daily growth rate of 0.22 g, a specific growth rate of 1.7%, a survival rate of 64% and a mortality rate of 36%. After sex identification (sexing), the rates of hormonal treatment were 83.33% and 16.66% for males and females, respectively. In conclusion, the popularization of the results of this study could be considered as an alternative for a production of monosex male population in Oreochromis niloticus that will feed the networks of local producers to improve the production of the species throughout the country. Keywords: Oreochromis niloticus, hormone, sex, larvae and tank.