Dynamics of Persistent Submicroscopic and Microscopic in Pregnant Women Under Intermittent Preventive Treatment: A Study Cohort in Benin.

Background: Malaria infections in pregnancy are a major cause of maternal morbidity and neonatal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. A high proportion of these infections are submicroscopic, which are usually asymptomatic and therefore untreated during pregnancy. Intermittent preventive treatment with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (IPTp-SP) aims to prevent and treat all potential infections whether submicroscopic or not.

Feasibility and acceptability of integrating mass distribution of azithromycin to children 1-11 months into a trachoma mass drug administration campaign to reduce child mortality in Côte d'Ivoire.

Evidence suggests that bi-annual mass drug administration (MDA) of single-dose azithromycin to 1-11 month-old children reduces child mortality in high child-mortality settings. Several countries conduct annual MDAs to distribute azithromycin to individuals ages 6 months and older to prevent trachoma infection. This study examined the feasibility and acceptability of reaching 1-11 months-old children during a trachoma MDA in Côte d'Ivoire by extending azithromycin distribution to infants 1-5 months old during the campaign.

Antibody response to malaria vaccine candidates in pregnant women with Plasmodium falciparum and Schistosoma haematobium infections.

Malaria in pregnancy has severe consequences for the mother and foetus. Antibody response to specific malaria vaccine candidates (MVC) has been associated with a decreased risk of clinical malaria and its outcomes. We studied Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) and Schistosoma haematobium (Sh) infections and factors that could influence antibody responses to MVC in pregnant women.

Predicting multimodal chromatography of therapeutic antibodies using multiscale modeling.

Multimodal chromatography has emerged as a powerful method for the purification of therapeutic antibodies. However, process development of this separation technique remains challenging because of an intricate and molecule-specific interaction towards multimodal ligands, leading to time-consuming and costly experimental optimization. This study presents a multiscale modeling approach to predict the multimodal chromatographic behavior of therapeutic antibodies based on their sequence information.

Malaria, Urogenital Schistosomiasis, and Anaemia in Pregnant Ghanaian Women.

Background: Anaemia is common in sub-Saharan Africa, and parasitic infections could worsen its burden during pregnancy. Moreover, women become susceptible to malaria during pregnancy. We investigated () and () infections and determined their association with anaemia during pregnancy.

Ex vivo RSA and pfkelch13 targeted-amplicon deep sequencing reveal parasites susceptibility to artemisinin in Senegal, 2017.

Background: Malaria control is highly dependent on the effectiveness of artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), the current frontline malaria curative treatment. Unfortunately, the emergence and spread of parasites resistant to artemisinin (ART) derivatives in Southeast Asia and South America, and more recently in Rwanda and Uganda (East Africa), compromise their long-term use in sub-Saharan Africa, where most malaria deaths occur.

Methods: Here, ex vivo susceptibility to dihydroartemisinin (DHA) was evaluated from 38 Plasmodium falciparum isolates collected in 2017 in Thiès (Senegal) expressed in the Ring-stage Survival Assay (RSA).

Functional diversity of the fish fauna in the Nyong estuary (Atlantic Coast, Cameroon), and its correlation with environmental variables.

Archaic fishing, anthropogenic pollution linked to demographic and economic growth stand to be a real threat to the richness and abundance of the aquatic fauna of estuaries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The knowledge of the Nyong estuary ichthyofauna's ecology in Cameroon is particularly essential to establish a management plan and sustainable management of this important ecosystem. The Nyong estuary ichthyofauna was composed of 13 families, 20 genera and 22 species, from February to June 2020.

Four new species of Hysterocinetida (Protozoa: Ciliophora) from the digestive tract of earthworms collected to the lower Nyong estuary (South Coast, Cameroon).

Hysterocinetida are a large assemblage of ciliates characterized by sucker and buccal apparatus. They have a wide distribution in the digestive tract of oligochaete annelids of the genus Alma that inhabit hydromorphic parts of non-anthropic hydrosystems. On the basis of morphological, morphometric and infraciliature characteristics revealed by ammoniacal silver carbonate and 4',6-Diamidino-2-Phenyl Indole (DAPI) staining techniques, four forms were identified as new members belonging to three genera: Preptychostomum, Proptychostomum and Thurstonia.

Ex vivo RSA and Pfkelch13 targeted-amplicon deep sequencing reveal parasites susceptibility to artemisinin in Senegal, 2017.

Introduction: Malaria control is highly dependent on the effectiveness of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), the current frontline malaria curative treatments. Unfortunately, the emergence and spread of parasites resistant to artemisinin (ART) derivatives in Southeast Asia and South America, and more recently in Rwanda and Uganda (East Africa), compromise their long-term use in Sub-Saharan Africa where most malaria deaths occur.

Methods: Here, we evaluated susceptibility to dihydroartemisinin (DHA) from 38 isolates collected in 2017 in Thiès (Senegal) expressed with the Ring-stage Survival Assay (RSA).

Intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and parasite resistance: cross-sectional surveys from antenatal care visit and delivery in rural Ghana.

Background: Despite decades of prevention efforts, the burden of malaria in pregnancy (MiP) remains a great public health concern. Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP), used as intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp-SP) is an important component of the malaria prevention strategy implemented in Africa. However, IPTp-SP is under constant threat from parasite resistance, thus requires regular evaluation to inform decision-making bodies.

5WBF: a low-cost and straightforward whole blood filtration method suitable for whole-genome sequencing of Plasmodium falciparum clinical isolates.

Background: Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) is becoming increasingly helpful to assist malaria control programmes. A major drawback of this approach is the large amount of human DNA compared to parasite DNA extracted from unprocessed whole blood. As red blood cells (RBCs) have a diameter of about 7-8 µm and exhibit some deformability, it was hypothesized that cheap and commercially available 5 µm filters might retain leukocytes but much less of Plasmodium falciparum-infected RBCs.

Suboptimal Intermittent Preventive Treatment in Pregnancy (IPTp) is Associated With an Increased Risk of Submicroscopic Plasmodium falciparum Infection in Pregnant Women: A Prospective Cohort Study in Benin.

Background: Harmful maternal and neonatal health outcomes result from malaria in pregnancy, the prevention of which primarily relies on intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP). The World Health Organization recommends IPTp-SP in sub-Saharan Africa, but implementation is highly heterogeneous and often suboptimal in terms of the number of doses and their timing. In this study, we assessed the impact of this heterogeneity on malaria in pregnancy, mainly with respect to submicroscopic Plasmodium falciparum infections.

Correction to: Prevalence and clinical impact of malaria infections detected with a highly sensitive HRP2 rapid diagnostic test in Beninese pregnant women.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

A Genotyping Study in Benin Comparing the Carriage of Plasmodium falciparum Infections Before Pregnancy and in Early Pregnancy: Story of a Persistent Infection.

Background: Malaria infections in the first trimester of pregnancy are frequent and deleterious for both mother and child health. To investigate if these early infections are newly acquired or already present in the host, we assessed whether parasites detected before pregnancy and those detected in early pregnancy are the same infection.

Methods: We used data from the preconceptional "RECIPAL" study (Benin, 2014-2017).

Prevalence and clinical impact of malaria infections detected with a highly sensitive HRP2 rapid diagnostic test in Beninese pregnant women.

Background: While sub-microscopic malarial infections are frequent and potentially deleterious during pregnancy, routine molecular detection is still not feasible. This study aimed to assess the performance of a Histidine Rich Protein 2 (HRP2)-based ultrasensitive rapid diagnostic test (uRDT, Alere Malaria Ag Pf) for the detection of infections of low parasite density in pregnant women.

Methods: This was a retrospective study based on samples collected in Benin from 2014 to 2017.

Dynamics of Submicroscopic Plasmodium falciparum Infections Throughout Pregnancy: A Preconception Cohort Study in Benin.

Background: In the context of global malaria elimination efforts, special attention is being paid to submicroscopic Plasmodium falciparum infections. In pregnant, sub-Saharan African women, such infections are more prevalent than microscopic infections, and are thought to have adverse effects on both mothers' and newborns' health. However, no study has studied the dynamics and determinants of these infections throughout pregnancy.

Effect of Drug Pressure on Promoting the Emergence of Antimalarial-Resistant Parasites among Pregnant Women in Ghana.

The continuous spread of antimalarial drug resistance is a threat to current chemotherapy efficacy. Therefore, characterizing the genetic diversity of drug resistance markers is needed to follow treatment effectiveness and further update control strategies. Here, we genotyped resistance gene markers associated with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) and artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) in isolates from pregnant women in Ghana.

Parasites Causing Cerebral Falciparum Malaria Bind Multiple Endothelial Receptors and Express EPCR and ICAM-1-Binding PfEMP1.

Background: Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1) mediates the binding and accumulation of infected erythrocytes (IE) to blood vessels and tissues. Specific interactions have been described between PfEMP1 and human endothelial proteins CD36, intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), and endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR); however, cytoadhesion patterns typical for pediatric malaria syndromes and the associated PfEMP1 members are still undefined.

Methods: In a cohort of 94 hospitalized children with malaria, we characterized the binding properties of IE collected on admission, and var gene transcription using quantitative polymerase chain reaction.

Lack of artemisinin resistance in Plasmodium falciparum in northwest Benin after 10 years of use of artemisinin-based combination therapy.

Aim: In Benin, artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) has been recommended as the first-line treatment for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria since 2004. The emergence in Southeast Asia of parasites that are resistant to artemisinins poses a serious threat to global control of this disease. The presence of artemisinin resistance genotypes in parasite populations in Benin is currently unknown.

Cardiac injury in child managed successfully in underprivileged hospital of Africa.

Cardiac injuries are rare and the associated mortality is high. Their prognosis can be ameliorated by early diagnosis and management in a specialized hospital with appropriate resuscitation care. This report describes a case of cardiac penetrating injury in a child managed successfully in an underprivileged hospital of Africa.

[Prevalence and incidence of HIV-1 infection among employees of a large textile business and their wives in Kinshasa, 1991-1996].

Background: The Democratic Republic of Congo has been experiencing a critical economic situation for several years, resulting in a favorable context for the spread of HIV-infection. A study was performed in a large textile factory in Kinshasa, to determine prevalence and incidence of HIV-infection among employees and their wives.

Methods: From February to November 1996, a cross-sectional study was conducted among 2010 employees (1859 males, 151 females) of the factory and their 1198 female partners.