Ethnobotanical survey and antibacterial activity of some plants used in Guinean traditional medicine.

A total of 418 healers have been interviewed in Guinea, a coastal country of West Africa, ranging between 7 degrees 30 and 12 degrees 30 of northern latitude and 8 degrees and 15 degrees of western longitude. Plant species used by the local inhabitants to treat infectious diseases were identified using ethnobotanical, ethnographic and taxonomic methods. During these investigations, 218 plants were registered, of which the following were the most frequently used: Erythrina senegalensis, Bridelia ferruginea, Crossopteryx febrifuga, Ximenia americana, Annona senegalensis, Cochlospermum tinctorium, Cochlospermum planchonii, Lantana camara, Costus afer, Psidium guajava, Terminalia glaucescens, Uapaca somon and Swartzia madagascariensis.

[Four year management of HIV serology at the National Center of Blood Transfusion in Conakry].

From January 1997 to December 2000, 21145 blood donations have been collected and tested for anti-HIV antibodies by the National Center of Blood Transfusion of Conakry (NCBT). 347 were positive, confirmed by Western Blot (312 HIV-1, 20 HIV-2 and 15 HIV1-2). HIV seroprevalence in tested blood donations showed a slow decrease by year: 1.

[Evaluation of residual infectious risk among blood donors in National Center of Blood Transfusion in Conakry].

To estimate the risk of transmitting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) by blood transfusion. Residual risks for each of infections have been calculated from incidence cases number, rate incidence for 100,000 person-years has been estimated and multiplied by the period of mute serological window for each agent (22 days for HIV and 56 for HBV) in order to estimate the residual risk. This study shows that risk residual is 1/121 blood donations for HBV and 1/8562 blood donations for HIV.