Efficacy of BCG vaccination of the newborn: evaluation by a follow-up study of contacts in Bangui.

Background: The efficacy of Bacillus of Calmette and Guérin (BCG) vaccination given at birth is still controversial. We therefore conducted a study in Bangui (Central African Republic) to estimate the protection afforded over the first seven years of life by BCG administered at birth.

Methods: One thousand children who had lived in contact with a recently diagnosed case of contagious tuberculosis were followed up for a period of 6 months in order to detect the occurrence of tuberculosis.

Characteristics of serogroup A Neisseria meningitidis strains isolated in the Central African Republic in February 1992.

A severe epidemic of serogroup A meningococcus meningitis occurred in the northwest Central African Republic from January to March 1992. Strains from 24 patients were characterized using serotyping, testing of susceptibility to antibiotics, and multilocus enzyme electrophoresis. In 23 of the 24 patients the causal strain was found to be 4:P1.

[Morbidity and mortality in the pediatric service of Banqui (Central African Republic) during the year 1990. Implications for public health].

Hospitalizations in the department of pediatrics of the Bangui Hospital (Central Africa) during the year 1990 were evaluated in terms of mortality and morbidity. During the study year, 8,052 children were admitted. Overall in-hospital mortality rate was 11.

Evaluation of the efficacy of a low-passage bovine rotavirus (strain WC3) vaccine in children in Central Africa.

The safety and efficacy of a WC3 rotavirus vaccine was evaluated in a double-blind placebo-controlled trial involving 472 children in Bangui (Central African Republic). Each child received two doses of either placebo (235 children) or vaccine (237 children) at a 1-month interval, the first dose being given at 3 months of age. During the follow-up survey 9 months after the first dose, 117 rotavirus diarrhoeas were observed, 59 in the placebo group, 58 in the vaccinated group.

[Tuberculous allergy in a population of 3-to-23-month-old children in Bangui (Central African Republic)].

In 1986, vaccinal allergy has been looked for by tuberculin RT 23 intradermal reaction within a random group of 354 Central African Children aged of 3 to 23 months and immunized in the Mother and Child Care Services in Bangui in the framework of the Enlarged Vaccination Program, with the same B.C.G.