Publications by authors named "Ewurabena O Duker"
Article Synopsis
- The Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched in Ghana in 1996, successfully stopping the wild poliovirus by 2008, but faced vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 outbreaks in 2019 and 2022.
- A retrospective analysis of Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) surveillance data from 2018 to 2022 revealed that most cases involved young children, with over 77% experiencing fever at the onset of paralysis.
- The surveillance system in Ghana exhibited effectiveness with high non-polio AFP rates and stool adequacy, but improvements are needed in data completeness and timely processing of stool samples.
Article Synopsis
- Circulating Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus Type 2 (cVDPV2) was found in sewage and stool samples from children with acute flaccid paralysis in northern Ghana, prompting an investigation into the outbreak.
- A total of 18 cases of cVDPV2 were confirmed across three regions, linked to a strain from Nigeria, highlighting issues in water quality, sanitation, and community health practices.
- The outbreak marked the first incidence of cVDPV2 in Ghana since 1996 but was controlled through enhanced surveillance and vaccination campaigns, including the Monovalent Oral Polio Vaccine 2 (mOPV2) and a nationwide IPV catch-up campaign.
Article Synopsis
- * 17% of the samples tested positive for the virus, with a higher prevalence in wastewater (11%) compared to sewage (6%), particularly in the Greater Accra Region.
- * Despite finding viral RNA, attempts to isolate the virus were unsuccessful, indicating that while SARS-CoV-2 persists in the environment, it may not be infectious in these samples.
Accurate monitoring of epidemics is a key strategy for controlling human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) infection. To delineate the characteristics of newly diagnosed cases of HIV-1 infection, we assessed the proportion of recent HIV-1 infections using a recent infection-testing algorithm (RITA). In 2015, 248 cases were newly diagnosed with HIV infection at the Regional Hospital Koforidua, Ghana.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) infections, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) responses targeting human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-restricted viral epitopes exert strong suppressive pressure on viral replication and frequently select for mutations resulting in viral escape from CTL recognition. Numerous data on these HLA-associated mutations in HIV-1 subtypes B and C have been amassed with few reports described in other subtypes. In the present study, we investigated the HLA-associated mutations in HIV-1 subtype CRF02_AG prevailing in Ghana, Western Africa.
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