Seeding COVID-19 across Sub-Saharan Africa: An Analysis of Reported Importation Events across 49 Countries.

The first case of COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) was reported by Nigeria on February 27, 2020. Whereas case counts in the entire region remain considerably less than those being reported by individual countries in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, variation in preparedness and response capacity as well as in data availability has raised concerns about undetected transmission events in the SSA region. To capture epidemiological details related to early transmission events into and within countries, a line list was developed from publicly available data on institutional websites, situation reports, press releases, and social media accounts.

Antimalarial activity of 10-alkyl/aryl esters and -aminoethylethers of artemisinin.

A series of n-alkyl/aryl esters were synthesized and their in vitro antiplasmodial activity was measured alongside that of previously synthesized aminoethylethers of artemisinin ozonides against various strains of Plasmodium falciparum. The cytotoxicity against human cell lines was also assessed. The esters were synthesized in a one-step reaction by derivatization on carbon C-10 of dihydroartemisinin.

Phase 1 study in malaria naïve adults of BSAM2/Alhydrogel®+CPG 7909, a blood stage vaccine against P. falciparum malaria.

Unlabelled: A Phase 1 dose escalating study was conducted in malaria naïve adults to assess the safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity of the blood stage malaria vaccine BSAM2/Alhydrogel®+ CPG 7909. BSAM2 is a combination of the FVO and 3D7 alleles of recombinant AMA1 and MSP1(42), with equal amounts by weight of each of the four proteins mixed, bound to Alhydrogel®, and administered with the adjuvant CPG 7909. Thirty (30) volunteers were enrolled in two dose groups, with 15 volunteers receiving up to three doses of 40 µg total protein at Days 0, 56, and 180, and 15 volunteers receiving up to three doses of 160 µg protein on the same schedule.

Phase 1 trial of malaria transmission blocking vaccine candidates Pfs25 and Pvs25 formulated with montanide ISA 51.

Background: Pfs25 and Pvs25, surface proteins of mosquito stage of the malaria parasites P. falciparum and P. vivax, respectively, are leading candidates for vaccines preventing malaria transmission by mosquitoes.

Development and characterization of a standardized ELISA including a reference serum on each plate to detect antibodies induced by experimental malaria vaccines.

Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been widely used to measure antibody titers for evaluating the immunogenicity of a vaccine. However, there is as yet no generally accepted way of expressing the ELISA results in the case of experimental vaccines, since there is usually no uniform standard. Both end point and single dilution methods have significant disadvantages.