Publications by authors named "Aita Sene"
Background: Drug resistance in Plasmodium falciparum is a major threat to malaria control efforts. Pathogen genomic surveillance could be invaluable for monitoring current and emerging parasite drug resistance.
Methods: Data from two decades (2000-2020) of continuous molecular surveillance of P.
Article Synopsis
- The study highlights the need for accurate malaria diagnosis in Senegal, where current tests primarily detect P. falciparum and may miss other species and low-level infections.
- Samples from symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals were collected and tested using both traditional RDTs and a more sensitive technique, PET-PCR, which can identify all Plasmodium species.
- Results showed that PET-PCR revealed a higher malaria prevalence than RDTs and identified multiple species present, including P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. malariae, and P. ovale, underscoring the importance of advanced diagnostic methods in malaria control efforts.
Background: Following WHO guidelines, microscopy is the gold standard for malaria diagnosis in endemic countries. The Parasitology-Mycology laboratory (LPM) is the National Reference Laboratory and is currently undergoing ISO 15189 accreditation. In this context, we assessed the performance of the laboratory by confirming the reliability and the accuracy of results obtained in accordance with the requirements of the ISO 15189 standards.
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- Genetic surveillance of Plasmodium falciparum can help National Malaria Control Programmes estimate parasite transmission using metrics like multi-strain infections and infection complexity, despite uncertainties about their ability to directly predict clinical incidence.
- In a study involving 3,147 clinical infections across Senegal from 2012-2020, researchers used genetic analysis to correlate genetic metrics with malaria incidence at different clinic sites.
- Results indicated that genetic metrics reliably predicted incidence when transmission was high (over 10 cases per 1,000 annually), but showed reversed correlations at lower transmission levels, suggesting a limit to the use of genetics in estimating incidence during low transmission periods.
The worldwide decline in malaria incidence is revealing the extensive burden of non-malarial febrile illness (NMFI), which remains poorly understood and difficult to diagnose. To characterize NMFI in Senegal, we collected venous blood and clinical metadata in a cross-sectional study of febrile patients and healthy controls in a low malaria burden area. Using 16S and untargeted sequencing, we detected viral, bacterial, or eukaryotic pathogens in 23% (38/163) of NMFI cases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGenetic surveillance of the parasite shows great promise for helping National Malaria Control Programs (NMCPs) assess parasite transmission. Genetic metrics such as the frequency of polygenomic (multiple strain) infections, genetic clones, and the complexity of infection (COI, number of strains per infection) are correlated with transmission intensity. However, despite these correlations, it is unclear whether genetic metrics alone are sufficient to estimate clinical incidence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe here analyze data from the first year of an ongoing nationwide program of genetic surveillance of Plasmodium falciparum parasites in Senegal. The analysis is based on 1097 samples collected at health facilities during passive malaria case detection in 2019; it provides a baseline for analyzing parasite genetic metrics as they vary over time and geographic space. The study's goal was to identify genetic metrics that were informative about transmission intensity and other aspects of transmission dynamics, focusing on measures of genetic relatedness between parasites.
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- Researchers studied non-malarial febrile illness (NMFI) in Senegal, finding it is hard to understand and diagnose.
- In their study, they found that 29% of NMFI cases had different germs, mostly bacteria, while some cases had viruses.
- They created a model to help doctors better identify NMFI based on symptoms and health signs, showing that better testing is really needed.
Article Synopsis
- Drug resistance to malaria is a big problem that makes it hard to control the disease, especially in Senegal.
- Researchers studied data from 2000 to 2020 to see how changes in medicine policies affected malaria parasites.
- They found that when certain drugs were removed or introduced, the parasites changed quickly, showing that we need to watch how well preventive treatments work.
Article Synopsis
- Scientists are studying how to use parasite genetics to help control malaria in Senegal.
- They discovered that having multiple different types of parasites in one person can predict local malaria outbreaks.
- Most related parasites in the country form a big family, which could help identify where malaria is spreading and if certain drugs are becoming less effective against it.
Dengue virus is a major and rapidly growing public health concern in tropic and subtropic regions across the globe. In late 2018, Senegal experienced its largest dengue virus outbreak to date, covering several regions. However, little is known about the genetic diversity of dengue virus (DENV) in Senegal.
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