Publications by authors named "Mohamadou Ripa Njankouo"
Article Synopsis
- Influenza virus is the leading cause of respiratory infections in Cameroon, with specific symptoms like a fever ≥38°C and cough indicating influenza-like illnesses (ILI).
- A study involving over 11,800 participants over nearly a decade identified cough, rhinorrhoea, headache, and myalgia as key predictors of influenza positivity.
- Two statistical models were used to assess symptom importance, with the random forest model outperforming the binomial logistic model, highlighting myalgia as the most significant symptom for predicting influenza infection.
Article Synopsis
- A study was conducted in Cameroon to evaluate a new smartphone-based system (EWS) for collecting influenza epidemiological data compared to older paper-based and SMS methods.
- The smartphone system provided significantly more complete, timely, and high-quality data, while being more cost-effective than the traditional methods.
- The findings suggest that the smartphone system's successful performance may lead to its wider adoption in other disease surveillance efforts in the future.
Article Synopsis
- * The highest prevalence of influenza cases occurred in the 2-4, 5-14, and 15-49 age groups, while infants (0-1 years) had the lowest proportion of cases despite being the most sampled group.
- * Influenza viruses circulated year-round, with significant peaks noted between September-December and March-July, and the strains showed a 37.5% match with Northern Hemisphere vaccine strains, particularly in the B/Victoria subtype.
Article Synopsis
- In Cameroon, previous studies on influenza virus genetic characterization have predominantly focused on the Southern regions, neglecting potential differences in the Northern region due to its distinct climate.
- This research examined the genetic diversity of influenza A(H3N2) viruses in Northern Cameroon by analyzing gene segments from 16 virus strains collected between 2014 and 2016.
- Findings indicated that many Northern strains resembled the 2016-2017 vaccine strain, while genetic analysis revealed no resistance to neuraminidase inhibitors but confirmed resistance to amantadine, highlighting the need for comprehensive surveillance across all regions in Cameroon.
In 2009, Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 caused the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century with high mortality rates of about 284 500 deaths. This virus, however, continues to circulate as a seasonal influenza virus and to cause illness and deaths worldwide. In this study, we describe the genetic diversity of A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses collected between 2014 and 2016 in Cameroon.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- - The study focused on the impact of weather conditions like temperature, humidity, and rainfall on the seasonal patterns of influenza viruses in Northern Cameroon, where temperatures are high.
- - Researchers analyzed data from January 2014 to December 2016, using a vector error correction model to connect monthly confirmed influenza cases with the corresponding meteorological data.
- - Results revealed a significant link between humidity levels and overall influenza activity, indicating that higher humidity could lead to increased influenza cases two months later, while temperature and rainfall did not affect influenza B activity.
Article Synopsis
- Influenza B is categorized into two main lineages: B/Victoria and B/Yamagata, which differ genetically and antigenically.
- This study represents the first characterization of the Influenza B virus genome in Cameroon, examining samples collected from 2014 to 2017 through the National Influenza Center's surveillance efforts.
- The findings revealed three major genetic clades among the strains, highlighted numerous reassortant viruses, and underscored the necessity of ongoing molecular surveillance to identify significant genetic variants for public health.
Influenza is associated with highly contagious respiratory infections. Previous research has found that influenza transmission is often associated with climate variables especially in temperate regions. This study was performed in order to fill the gap of knowledge regarding the relationship between incidence of influenza and three meteorological parameters (temperature, rainfall and humidity) in a tropical setting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF