Proactive home-based malaria management in rural communities of Bassar Health District in northern Togo from 2014 to 2017: PECADOM + , a pilot experiment.

Background: Togo's National Malaria Control Programme has initiated an active home-based malaria management model for all age groups in rural areas of Bassar Health District. This report describes the model, reports its main results, and determines the factors associated with positive rapid diagnostic test results.

Methods: From 2014 to 2017, in three peripheral care units of Bassar Health District (Binaparba, Nangbani, and Baghan), community health workers visited residents' homes weekly to identify patients with malaria symptoms, perform rapid diagnostic tests in symptomatic patients, and give medication to positive cases.

Place of concordance-discordance model in evaluating NGS performance.

Introduction: Ideally, evaluating NGS performance requires a gold standard; in its absence, concordance between replicates is often used as substitute standard. However, the appropriateness of the concordance-discordance criterion has been rarely evaluated. This study analyzes the relationship between the probability of discordance and the probability of error under different conditions.

Disclosure of HIV status and adherence to antiretroviral treatment in children and adolescents from Lomé and Abidjan.

Introduction: in Africa, the proportion of minors with AIDS is ever increasing and adherence to treatment protocols is still suboptimal. The study investigated the conditions of HIV status disclosure and adherence to treatment in patients < 19 in two West African cities.

Methods: in 2016, thirteen health professionals and four parents filled out questionnaires to identify problems and solutions relative to disclosure of HIV status and adherence to treatment in 208 children and adolescents seen at University Hospitals in Abidjan (Ivory Coast) and Lomé (Togo).

Stronger Impact of COVID-19 in Nursing Homes of a French Region During the Second Pandemic Wave.

Objectives: Quantify the effects of characteristics of nursing homes and their surroundings on the spread of COVID-19 outbreaks and assess the changes in resident protection between the first 2 waves (March 1 to July 31 and August 1 to December 31, 2020).

Design: An observational study was carried out on data on COVID-19 outbreaks extracted from a database that monitored the spread of the virus in nursing homes.

Setting And Participants: The study concerned all 937 nursing homes with >10 beds in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, France.

Performance comparisons between clustering models for reconstructing NGS results from technical replicates.

To improve the performance of individual DNA sequencing results, researchers often use replicates from the same individual and various statistical clustering models to reconstruct a high-performance callset. Here, three technical replicates of genome NA12878 were considered and five model types were compared (consensus, latent class, Gaussian mixture, Kamila-adapted k-means, and random forest) regarding four performance indicators: sensitivity, precision, accuracy, and F1-score. In comparison with no use of a combination model, i) the consensus model improved precision by 0.

Effectiveness of seasonal malaria chemoprevention in three regions of Togo: a population-based longitudinal study from 2013 to 2020.

Background: In 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) in areas of high seasonal transmission. Though implemented since 2013, the effectiveness of SMC in Togo was never evaluated.

Methods: This study concerned routine data from 2013 to 2020 mass SMC campaigns for children under five in all health facilities of three Regions of Togo.

Distinct urinary progesterone metabolite profiles during the luteal phase.

Objectives: During normal menstrual cycles, serum levels of progesterone vary widely between cycles of same woman and between women. This study investigated the profiles of pregnanediol during the luteal phase.

Methods: Data stemmed from a previous multicenter prospective observational study and concerned 107 women (who contributed 326 menstrual cycles).

Predicted Impacts of Booster, Immunity Decline, Vaccination Strategies, and Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions on COVID-19 Outcomes in France.

The major economic and health consequences of COVID-19 called for various protective measures and mass vaccination campaigns. A previsional model was used to predict the future impacts of various measure combinations on COVID-19 mortality over a 400-day period in France. Calibrated on previous national hospitalization and mortality data, an agent-based epidemiological model was used to predict individual and combined effects of booster doses, vaccination of refractory adults, and vaccination of children, according to infection severity, immunity waning, and graded non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs).

Selected and simplified FDI criteria for assessment of restorations.

Objectives: Assess the quality of dental restorations with simplified FDI criteria and examine its relationships with other general characteristics of restored teeth.

Methods: The study involved 76 dentists from private and hospital practices. Assessments of successes and failures of previous restorations used a simplified rating with FDI criteria 3 to 8, 11, 12, and 14.

Descriptive analysis of the relationship between progesterone and basal body temperature across the menstrual cycle.

Objective: Describe the relationship between basal body temperature (BBT) and pregnanediol-3 alpha-glucuronide (PDG, the urine metabolite of progesterone) across the menstrual cycle.

Design: Observational study.

Setting: Study carried out from 1996 to 1997 in eight European family planning clinics.

COVID-19 outbreaks in nursing homes: A strong link with the coronavirus spread in the surrounding population, France, March to July 2020.

Background: Worldwide, COVID-19 outbreaks in nursing homes have often been sudden and massive. The study investigated the role SARS-CoV-2 virus spread in nearby population plays in introducing the disease in nursing homes.

Material And Methods: This was carried out through modelling the occurrences of first cases in each of 943 nursing homes of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes French Region over the first epidemic wave (March-July, 2020).

Expected Evolution of COVID-19 Epidemic in France for Several Combinations of Vaccination Strategies and Barrier Measures.

The outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, enhanced by rapid spreads of variants, has caused a major international health crisis, with serious public health and economic consequences. An agent-based model was designed to simulate the evolution of the epidemic in France over 2021 and the first six months of 2022. The study compares the efficiencies of four theoretical vaccination campaigns (over 6, 9, 12, and 18 months), combined with various non-pharmaceutical interventions.

Determining the Interrater Reliability of the SOFMER Activity Score (version 2) for Individuals in Rehabilitation Centers.

Objective: To assess the interrater reliability of the SOFMER Activity Score (SAS) (version 2 [v2], an 8-item [4 motor and 4 cognitive] and 5-level scale) and improve its scoring system before conducting further validation steps.

Design: Cross-sectional, prospective, observational, noninterventional, and multicentric study.

Setting: The study was conducted between November 2018 and September 2019 in 4 French rehabilitation centers (2 public university hospitals for adults and 2 private not-for-profit rehabilitation centers for children).

Exposure of paediatric healthcare personnel to nitrous oxide in paediatric care units.

Nitrous oxide (NO) was found responsible for genetic and reproductive toxicities, whereas it is widely used in paediatric care units where most healthcare providers are women of childbearing age. This motivated investigating occupational overexposure and overexposure factors in several paediatric hospital units. A cross-sectional study was carried out in seven healthcare units.

Protocol of controlled odorant stimulation for reducing apnoeic episodes in premature newborns: a randomised open-label Latin-square study with independent evaluation of the main endpoint (PREMODEUR).

Introduction: Apnoea affects 85% of premature infants under 34 weeks of age and would be an important risk factor for subsequent neuropsychological disorders. Currently, premature children with life-threatening apnoeas receive stimulants such as methylxanthines (mainly, caffeine) or doxapram (an analeptic unlicensed in children under 15). However, these products have undesirable effects (hyperarousal, irritability, sleep disorders, tachycardia) and are not always effective because apnoea does persist in some premature newborns.

Gain in net survival from hypertension control over the last half-century.

Aims: This study determined whether the improvements in hypertension management over the last five decades have influenced subjects' prognosis.

Methods And Results: The study considered 5693 eligible subjects seen January 1969 to February 1991 (follow-up until December 2003) or January 1995 to October 2014 (follow-up until July 2016) in an all-grade hypertension reference centre. Missing data or incomplete follow-ups led to exclude 1036 subjects (18%).

The impact of left truncation of exposure in environmental case-control studies: evidence from breast cancer risk associated with airborne dioxin.

In epidemiology, left-truncated data may bias exposure effect estimates. We analyzed the bias induced by left truncation in estimating breast cancer risk associated with exposure to airborne dioxins. Simulations were run with exposure estimates from a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based metric and considered two hypotheses for historical exposure, three scenarios for intra-individual correlation of annual exposures, and three exposure-effect models.

The COVID-19 pandemic is deepening the health crisis in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Objective: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo raised concerns regarding additional morbidity and mortality. Updating these indicators before a second wave is essential in order to prepare for additional help.

Methods: From mid-May to mid-December 2020, weekly surveys were undertaken in sampled streets from 10 health areas to quantify the use of barrier measures, and interview pedestrians about sickness and deaths in their households.

Comparison of iohexol plasma clearance formulas vs. inulin urinary clearance for measuring glomerular filtration rate.

Objectives: The one-compartment iohexol plasma clearance has been proposed as a reliable alternative to renal inulin clearance. However, this method's performance depends on the formula used to calculate glomerular filtration rate (GFR). This study reports on performance comparisons between various mathematical formulas proposed for iohexol plasma clearance vs.

A dashboard for monitoring preventive measures in response to COVID-19 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Background: In most health areas, an information system is necessary for an effective fight against COVID-19. Current methods for surveillance of diseases with epidemic potential do not include monitoring the adherence to preventive measures. Furthermore, modern data collection methods depend often on technologies (e.

Men's experience of first fatherhood discovery: a descriptive study based on free hierarchical evocation by associative networks.

: Men's experiences of first-fatherhood discovery differ widely with various circumstances; they were examined according to the intended/unintended occurrence of partner's pregnancy.: An Associative Network study targeted 44 first-time fathers and analysed their reactions to a stimulus-sentence 'In the first days after pregnancy announcement … ': Word-associations formed 19 themes and 5 metathemes. The main metathemes were Emotional (30%), Cognitive (27%) and Relational (23%).

A new simplified and accurate sa-SOFA score.

Purpose: Several remarks have been raised regarding the variables and cut-points used in the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score. This study revisited the SOFA score and created a new simplified and accurate sa-SOFA score.

Methods: The study grouped four prospective cohorts (2005-2016) of patients with Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome.