Introduction: Canine rabies remains a concern in Africa as well as in Chad. Our study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes and practices of the populations towards the appropriate management of people exposed to canine rabies and effective fight against it.
Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional, descriptive study in four health districts in Chad in July and in September 2015.
Background: Gambian sleeping sickness or HAT (human African trypanosomiasis) is a neglected tropical disease caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense transmitted by riverine species of tsetse. A global programme aims to eliminate the disease as a public health problem by 2020 and stop transmission by 2030. In the South of Chad, the Mandoul area is a persistent focus of Gambian sleeping sickness where around 100 HAT cases were still diagnosed and treated annually until 2013.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRabies claims approximately 59,000 human lives annually and is a potential risk to 3.3 billion people in over 100 countries worldwide. Despite being fatal in almost 100% of cases, human rabies can be prevented by vaccinating dogs, the most common vector, and the timely administration of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to exposed victims.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClose to 69,000 humans die of rabies each year, most of them in Africa and Asia. Clinical rabies can be prevented by post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). However, PEP is commonly not available or not affordable in developing countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: One root cause of the neglect of rabies is the lack of adequate diagnostic tests in the context of low income countries. A rapid, performance friendly and low cost method to detect rabies virus (RABV) in brain samples will contribute positively to surveillance and consequently to accurate data reporting, which is presently missing in the majority of rabies endemic countries.
Methodology/principal Findings: We evaluated a rapid immunodiagnostic test (RIDT) in comparison with the standard fluorescent antibody test (FAT) and confirmed the detection of the viral RNA by real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR).
Background: In Chad, several species of tsetse flies (Genus: Glossina) transmit African animal trypanosomoses (AAT), which represents a major obstacle to cattle rearing, and sleeping sickness, which impacts public health. After the failure of past interventions to eradicate tsetse, the government of Chad is now looking for other approaches that integrate cost-effective intervention techniques, which can be applied by the stake holders to control tsetse-transmitted trypanosomoses in a sustainable manner. The present study thus attempted to assess the efficacy of restricted application of insecticides to cattle leg extremities using footbaths for controlling Glossina m.
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