Low diagnostic performance of thick blood smears of 50 µl in comparison with direct examination of 10 µl blood and the leukoconcentration technique of 5ml blood among loiasis-suspected patients with low microfilaremia in Gabon, Central Africa, using the STARD-BLCM guidelines.

Background: The aim of this study was to determine performance indicators of thick blood smears of 50 µl (TBS-50), following the Standards for the Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-Bayesian Latent Class Model (STARD-BLCM) guidelines. TBS-50 was compared with two common parasitological techniques-direct examination of 10 µl blood and a leukoconcentration of 5 ml-for the diagnosis of microfilaremic loiasis.

Methods: The study population was recruited among patients of the Department of Parasitology-Mycology-Tropical Medicine over a period of 1 year.

Low sensitivity of the ImmunocardSTAT Crypto/Giardia Rapid Assay test for the detection of and in fecal samples from children living in Libreville, Central Africa.

Giardiasis and cryptosporidiosis are now recognized as neglected tropical parasitic diseases. The risk of their dissemination  in developing countries, such as Gabon, is increasing, due to urban crowding and poor sanitation. Accurate, simple and rapid diagnosis tools are thus necessary for the estimation of their real burden.

The relationship between microfilaraemic and amicrofilaraemic loiasis involving co-infection with Mansonella perstans and clinical symptoms in an exposed population from Gabon.

The relationship between the frequency of loiasis objective symptoms and microfilaraemic or amicrofilaraemic infection was assessed in 1148 exposed patients also infected, or not, with Mansonella perstans. Filarial infections were detected by direct microscopy, leucoconcentration and serology, with prevalence values of 39.5% Loa loa, 5.

Influence of Mansonella perstans microfilaraemia on total IgE levels in Gabonese patients co-infected with Loa loa.

Mansonella (M.) perstans filariasis is widely found in Africa, including Gabon where Loa loa is also endemic. This study reports the total IgE titres according to different bioclinical forms of single or co-infection with L.

[Trends in the prevalence of malaria and anemia at delivery in Libreville from 1995 to 2011].

In 1995, 2005 and 2011, cross-sectional studies of 611 parturients at the Centre Hospitalier de Libreville in Gabon assessed the prevalence of maternal malaria and anaemia; two indicators of poor pregnancy outcomes. The prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum infection in maternal peripheral blood decreased from 25% in 2005 to 6% in 2011. Parasite density was significantly lower in 2005 (31 p/μL) than in 1995 (1,240 p/μL) or 2011 (35,055 p/μL).