Investigation of an outbreak of acute respiratory disease in côte d'ivoire in april 2007.

Background: This study aim was to investigate an outbreak of human cases of unexplained influenza-like illness and fatal acute respiratory infection (ARI), with simultaneous poultry illness and high mortality raising concerns of possible influenza A (H5N1), virus in Cote d'Ivoire in February and March 2007.

Materials And Methods: To investigate the outbreak, we conducted active surveillance in the community and reviewed health registries. Persons meeting the case definition were asked to provide nasopharyngeal specimens.

Sentinel surveillance for influenza and other respiratory viruses in Côte d'Ivoire, 2003-2010.

Background: Many countries in Africa have lacked sentinel surveillance systems for influenza and are under-represented in data used for global vaccine strain selection.

Objectives: We describe 8 years of sentinel surveillance data and the contribution of influenza and other viruses to medically attended influenza-like illness (ILI) in Côte d'Ivoire.

Methods: Sentinel surveillance was established in 2003.

Effect of Robusta (Coffea canephora P.) coffee cherries quantity put out for sun drying on contamination by fungi and ochratoxin A (OTA) under tropical humid zone (Côte d'Ivoire).

The effect of coffee cherries quantity put out for sun drying on the kinetics of the drying, chemical components variation, fungal growth and ochratoxin A production was evaluated. The results showed that the more coffee cherries quantity on the drying area was important, the slower they dried. Indeed, the drying durations were 12, 17, 21, 26, 31 and 32 days respectively for the lots of 10 kg, 20 kg, 30 kg, 40 kg, 50 kg and 60 kg of cherries by square meter of drying area.

Multilocus VNTR analysis of Mycobacterium ulcerans strains isolated in Côte d'Ivoire.

Introduction: Buruli ulcer, caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, is endemic in more than 30 countries worldwide, with Côte d'Ivoire being among the most affected countries.

Methodology: We used seven variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) markers and analyzed 114 samples from 11 Ivorian localities consisting of 33 bacterial strains and 81 clinical samples. Complete data sets at loci 1, 6, 9 and 33 were obtained for 18 of these strains (n = 15) and samples (n = 3) collected in each of the localities.

[Influence of the interaction of temperature and water activity on the production of ochratoxin A and the growth of Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus carbonarius and Aspergillus ochraceus on coffee-based culture medium].

In the present study, the effect of temperature and water activity on fungal growth and ochratoxin production on coffee-based medium was assessed. Optimal growth of three Aspergillus strains was observed in the same ecological conditions, namely 30 degrees C and 0.99 water activity.