[Evaluation of erythrocyte concentrate prescription in a university hospital center].

This prospective study, based on declaratory data, evaluates the appropriateness of red blood cell transfusion prescriptions in a university hospital. Local recommendations written after data collection and the analysis of prescriptions using a blinded method limited the bias related to the declaratory data. The results show that the rate of unjustified prescriptions is 4.

Evaluation of ibuprofen versus aspirin and paracetamol on efficacy and comfort in children with fever.

Objective: We compared efficacy and impact on the comfort of ibuprofen (7.5 mg/kg per dose), aspirin (10 mg/kg/dose) and paracetamol (10 mg/kg per dose) on children with fever aged 6-24 months in an open, randomised study with three parallel groups.

Methods: The main criterion for efficacy was area under the curve (AUC) of percentage temperature reduction.

[Serological survey for arbovirus antibodies in the human and simian populations of the South-East of Gabon (author's transl)].

A serological survey for arbovirus antibodies was carried out in human and simian populations of the South-East of Gabon. 197 human sera (adults), 34 simian sera (collected in the monkey colony of the Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville) and 28 paired sera of mothers and their new-borns (samples collected from the umbilical cord) were tested using haemagglutination inhibition (HI) for all sera and complement fixation test (CF) for some of them. In the human population, 88% showed antibodies against yellow-fever virus as a consequence of vaccination, 20% against Chikungunya virus and 58% against Orungo virus.

Haemorrhagic fever in Gabon. I. Incidence of Lassa, Ebola and Marburg viruses in Haut-Ogooué.

A serological enquiry aimed at determining the incidence of infection with Lassa, Ebola and Marburg viruses was conducted on the human population of the region of Haut-Ogooué (Gabon) and on primates. The results, obtained by the indirect immunofluorescence technique, showed that more than 6% of the human population had had contact with Ebola virus but no antibodies against Marburg or Lassa viruses were found. Most sera reacted to an Ebola antigen from a Zairian strain, but showed little or no reaction to an antigen from a Sudanese strain.