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.

Prevalence, Intensity of Soil-Transmitted Helminths, and Factors Associated with Infection: Importance in Control Program with Ivermectin and Albendazole in Eastern Côte d'Ivoire.

Evaluation of soil-transmitted helminths (STHs) and implementation of additional interventions are required in the region of a filariasis control program, given that antifilariasis drugs also have a beneficial effect on STHs. Thus, this study determines the extensive epidemiology of STHs to improve their successful control. Stool samples were analyzed using the Kato-Katz method.

[The impact of war on the evolution of sleeping sickness in west-central Côte d'Ivoire].

Objective: To evaluate the situation of sleeping sickness in west-central Côte d'Ivoire from 2000 to 2003, in view of the war which broke out in September 2002.

Methods: Active surveys by medical teams and passive case detection.

Results: Between 2000 and 2003, 250 patients were diagnosed with sleeping sickness.

Human African trypanosomiasis: quantitative and qualitative assessment of intrathecal immune response.

Quantitative and qualitative techniques for assessment of the intrathecal humoral immune response in human African trypanosomiasis were compared, and their diagnostic potential for detection of the meningo-encephalitic stage of the disease was evaluated. Total and trypanosome specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgM intrathecal synthesis were studied in paired cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood samples of 38 trypanosomiasis patients and in three controls using Reiber's formulae. The presence of CSF-specific oligoclonal IgG and of trypanosome-specific antibodies was determined using iso-electric focusing followed by immunoblotting and antigen-driven immunoblots.

Stage determination and therapeutic decision in human African trypanosomiasis: value of polymerase chain reaction and immunoglobulin M quantification on the cerebrospinal fluid of sleeping sickness patients in Côte d'Ivoire.

In human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), two disease stages are defined: the first, or haemo-lymphatic stage, and the second, or meningo-encephalitic stage. Stage determination forms the basis of therapeutic decision and is of prime importance, as the drug used to cure second-stage patients has considerable side-effects. However, the tests currently used for stage determination have low sensitivity or specificity.