Prevalence of the sickle cell trait in Gabon: a nationwide study.

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is an important cause of death in young children in Africa, which the World Health Organization has declared a public health priority. Although SCD has been studied at the continental scale and at the local scale, a picture of its distribution at the scale of an African country has never been given. The aim of this study is to provide such a picture for the Republic of Gabon, a country where precisely the epidemiology of SCD has been poorly investigated.

Hepatitis C virus infection may lead to slower emergence of P. falciparum in blood.

Background: Areas endemic for Plasmodium falciparum, hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) overlap in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. HBV and HCV infections develop in the liver, where takes place the first development stage of P. falciparum before its further spread in blood.

Relationship between in vivo synchronicity of Plasmodium falciparum and allelic diversity.

Plasmodium falciparum cells tend to grow in synchronicity during their cyclic intraerythrocytic development in vivo. Both host and parasite factors appear to be involved in this synchronization. We examined the link between mixed-allelic-family P.

Cytoadherence and genotype of Plasmodium falciparum strains from symptomatic children in Franceville, southeastern Gabon.

Background: Plasmodium falciparum causes severe clinical manifestations by sequestering parasitized red blood cells (PRBC) in the microvasculature of major organs such as the brain. This sequestration results from PRBC adherence to vascular endothelial cells via erythrocyte membrane protein 1, a variant parasite surface antigen.

Objective: To determine whether P.

Submicroscopic Plasmodium falciparum infections before and after sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and artesunate association treatment in Dienga, Southeastern Gabon.

Background: It has been shown that Plasmodium falciparum submicroscopic infections (SMI) can contribute to malaria-associated anemia as well as to cerebral malaria. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays are usually used as an alternative to microscopy in detecting subpatently infected individuals.

Objectives: The main objective of this study was to investigate the occurrence of SMI before and after a suppressive antimalarial treatment in the population of the village of Dienga in Gabon.

In vitro susceptibility to a new antimalarial organometallic analogue, ferroquine, of Plasmodium falciparum isolates from the Haut-Ogooué region of Gabon.

Objectives: To assess the activity of a new organometallic chloroquine analogue, ferroquine, against numerous Plasmodium falciparum isolates from Gabon.

Methods: The in vitro susceptibility of 116 P. falciparum isolates to chloroquine and ferroquine was assessed using the isotopic microtest.

In vitro activity of chloroquine, quinine, mefloquine and halofantrine against Gabonese isolates of Plasmodium falciparum.

Objectives: To determine the in vitro activity of antimalarial drugs against isolates of Plasmodium falciparum in Gabon.

Methods: Plasmodium falciparum isolates were collected from symptomatic infections in the hospitals of Bakoumba and Franceville, south-east Gabon and in 2000. In vitro activity of chloroquine, quinine, mefloquine, halofantrine was measured by the isotopic microtest.