Publications by authors named "Abdramane Soura Bassiahi"
Background: Typhoid Fever remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in low-income settings. The Severe Typhoid in Africa programme was designed to address regional gaps in typhoid burden data and identify populations eligible for interventions using novel typhoid conjugate vaccines.
Methods: A hybrid design, hospital-based prospective surveillance with population-based health-care utilisation surveys, was implemented in six countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Article Synopsis
- Typhoid fever is a significant public health issue in sub-Saharan Africa, causing over 1.2 million illnesses and 29,000 deaths in 2017 alone.
- A study analyzed typhoid fever incidence rates from 2000 to 2022 across sub-Saharan Africa by examining the relationship between disease rates and geospatial factors like water access, sanitation, and health conditions.
- The findings showed varying incidence rates across different regions and age groups, with South Sudan reporting the highest rate, highlighting the importance of tailored interventions for disease control.
Article Synopsis
- Typhoid intestinal perforation (TIP) is a serious complication of typhoid fever, often diagnosed during surgery, leading to underreporting in regions with limited lab capabilities, such as Burkina Faso, DRC, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, and Nigeria.* ! -
- A study of 608 patients indicated that 35% had surgically-confirmed TIP, while only 5% had culture-confirmed typhoid, highlighting a low rate of detection for the disease.* ! -
- The findings suggest that low culture positivity rates and insufficient testing facilities contribute to an underestimation of typhoid fever's prevalence, with a notable occurrence of TIP in children aged 5-14 years in certain countries
Article Synopsis
- This study evaluated the effectiveness of using quantitative PCR (qPCR) on dried blood spots (DBS) to detect various pathogens in children and adolescents from Burkina Faso, Sudan, and Madagascar, testing a total of 115 samples.
- For detecting Plasmodium spp. (the malaria parasite), DBS showed good results, with a 94.1% sensitivity at a cutoff of 27, compared to the whole blood cutoff of 21.
- However, for other pathogens, the sensitivity dropped significantly to only 8.5%, indicating that while DBS is reliable for malaria detection, further research is needed for other infectious diseases.
Background: The World Health Organization now recommends the use of typhoid conjugate vaccines (TCVs) in typhoid-endemic countries, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, added TCVs into the portfolio of subsidized vaccines. Data from the Severe Typhoid Fever in Africa (SETA) program were used to contribute to TCV introduction decision-making processes, exemplified for Ghana and Madagascar.
Methods: Data collected from both countries were evaluated, and barriers to and benefits of introduction scenarios are discussed.