[Assessment of the quality of response to the 2008 cholera outbreak in Contonou (Benin)].

To assess the quality of the response to the 2008 outbreak of cholera in Cotonou (Benin), this retrospective study focused on the health professionals managing the response, community leaders, cases of cholera found in homes and health service documents. The terms of reference used for the purposes of this assessment included the WHO recommendations and the rules set out in the national plan for the fight against epidemics. The resources and method used in this study complied with the norms specified in the plan, as did the epidemiologic follow-up.

E-Learning and North-South collaboration: the experience of two public health schools in France and Benin.

Introduction: Distance learning (e-learning) can facilitate access to training. Yet few public health E-learning experiments have been reported; institutes in developing countries experience difficulties in establishing on-line curricula, while developed countries struggle with adapting existing curricula to realities on the ground. In 2005, two schools of public health, one in France and one in Benin, began collaborating through contact sessions organised for Nancy University distance-learning students.

[Formative supervision: the experience of treatment units during cholera epidemic in Douala, Cameroon].

Formative supervision is a quality and performance tool based on evaluation and adult training techniques. The 2004 cholera outbreak in Douala (Cameroon) presented a critical problem in terms of quality of care; formative supervision emerged as the choice of instrument developed as a key response and solution. After a chronological qualitative description of how the supervision team and system were constituted, established and organized, the results are presented: strengthening infrastructure, equipment and organisation; improving the quality of care, hygiene, communication, and management.

[Large-scale selective antibiotic prophylaxis during the 2004 cholera outbreak in Douala (Cameroon)].

Introduction: During the 2004 cholera outbreak in Douala, densely populated and poor suburban populations had very poor access to safe drinking water and were at high risk of transmission. The provincial task force thus decided to provide preventive antibiotic treatment of all patient contacts, that is, family members taking care of patients in the hospital and household members of patients or close neighbours living in houses directly adjacent to patients.

Methodology: This retrospective report, based on data from hospitals, local cholera committees, and pharmacies, describes the course of the epidemic, bacteriological monitoring, and antibiotic distribution.

[Service quality assurance by death analysis during the 2004 cholera outbreak in Douala].

Morbidity and mortality conferences (MMC) are used today in most medical departments as a tool for quality assurance as well as an educational tool. We introduced MMC with regard to cholera lethality during the 2004 cholera outbreak in Douala. The Delegation of Public Health (DPH) in Douala, coordinating body for the combat against the epidemic, decided to open cholera treatment units (CTU) in fourteen hospitals, equally distributed over the town.

[Mass antibiotic prophylaxis against cholera in the New Bell central prison in Douala during the 2004 epidemic].

In early January 2004, cases of severe watery diarrhea were reported in Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon (estimated population: 2.4 million inhabitants). Three stool samples examined at the Cameroon National Reference Laboratory grew Vibrio cholerae serogroup O1, later identified by the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, as serotype Inaba.