Short oral treatment regimens for rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis are safe and effective for young children: results from a field-based, non-randomised clinical trial from Kandahar, Afghanistan.

https://bit.ly/3UnWm43

What it takes to get it right: A qualitative study exploring optimal handover of health programmes in Tonkolili District, Sierra Leone.

Since 2015 Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been supporting the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Tonkolili district, Sierra Leone, with an integrated health care approach at the community, primary health centre (PHC), and hospital level. This programme is planned to be handed over to MoH. To prepare for this handover, a qualitative study exploring elements of a successful handover was undertaken in 2019.

Person-centred care and short oral treatment for rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis improve retention in care in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Objectives: To describe the effect of adaptations to a person-centred care with short oral regimens on retention in care for rifampicin-resistant TB (RR-TB) in Kandahar province, Afghanistan.

Methods: The study included people with RR-TB registered in the programme between 01 October 2016 and 18 April 2021. From 19 November 2019, the programme implemented a trial investigating the safety and effectiveness of short oral RR-TB regimens.

Visceral leishmaniasis relapse in Southern Sudan (1999-2007): a retrospective study of risk factors and trends.

Background: Risk factors associated with L. donovani visceral leishmaniasis (VL; kala azar) relapse are poorly characterized.

Methods: We investigated patient characteristics and drug regimens associated with VL relapse using data from Médecins Sans Frontières - Holland (MSF) treatment centres in Southern Sudan.

Treatment of kala-azar in southern Sudan using a 17-day regimen of sodium stibogluconate combined with paromomycin: a retrospective comparison with 30-day sodium stibogluconate monotherapy.

Médecins sans Frontières-Holland has treated > 67,000 patients with kala-azar (KA) in southern Sudan since 1989. In 2002, we replaced the standard regimen of 30 days of daily sodium stibogluconate (SSG) with a 17-day regimen of daily SSG combined with paromomycin (PM). We analyzed data for 4,263 primary KA patients treated between 2002 and 2005 in southern Sudan to determine the relative efficacy of the combination therapy regimen (PM/SSG).

Field research in humanitarian medical programmes. Treatment of a cohort of tuberculosis patients using the Manyatta regimen in a conflict zone in South Sudan.

This is a descriptive report of a pilot project of tuberculosis (TB) treatment in a conflict zone. A TB programme was implemented by Médecins Sans Frontières(MSF)-Holland in a semi-nomadic population in a very insecure and underdeveloped area of Upper Nile province in Southern Sudan. Outcome measures were operational feasibility, default rate, and sputum smear conversion at 4 months.

Malaria in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan: baseline genotypic resistance and efficacy of the artesunate plus sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and artesunate plus amodiaquine combinations.

Both northern and southern Sudan are deploying artemisinin-based combinations against uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria (artesunate+sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine [AS+SP] in the north, artesunate+amodiaquine [AS+AQ] in the south). In 2003, we tested the efficacy of 3 day AS+SP and AS+AQ regimens in vivo in the isolated, seasonally endemic Nuba Mountains region (the first study of AS combinations in southern Sudan). We also analysed pre-treatment blood samples for mutations at the P.

Outbreak of West Nile virus causing severe neurological involvement in children, Nuba Mountains, Sudan, 2002.

An atypical outbreak of West Nile virus (WNV) occurred in Ngorban County, South Kordophan, Sudan, from May to August 2002. We investigated the epidemic and conducted a case-control study in the village of Limon. Blood samples were obtained for cases and controls.

Conflict and kala-azar: determinants of adverse outcomes of kala-azar among patients in southern Sudan.

We analyzed data obtained from 3365 patients with kala-azar (KA) or post-KA dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) treated by Medecins Sans Frontieres-Holland in south Sudan from October 1998-May 2002. Patients were malnourished (median body mass index [BMI], 15.5; median weight for height [WFH], 75.

Short report: association between chloroquine and amodiaquine resistance and allelic variation in the Plasmodium falciparum multiple drug resistance 1 gene and the chloroquine resistance transporter gene in isolates from the upper Nile in southern Sudan.

Amodiaquine, a 4-aminoquinoline compound, is being considered as an alternative to chloroquine and pyrimethamine/sulfadoxine where resistance in Plasmodium falciparum to both drugs has been selected. Although amodiaquine is more potent than chloroquine, its effectiveness is reduced in areas where chloroquine resistance is high. We report an association of the P.