Publications by authors named "Nadine N'dilimabaka"

Rabies is one of the oldest known zoonotic diseases, with dogs being the main reservoir for 99% of the cases of human rabies. However, wild animals may also be rabies vectors. In most cases, contact with a rabid animal results in rabies without pre- or post-exposure prophylaxis, and the disease is nearly always fatal.

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  • This study investigates the prevalence of protozoan parasites infecting rodents and domestic chickens in Franceville, Gabon, highlighting the risk of zoonotic diseases to humans.
  • A total of 285 animal samples were analyzed, revealing an overall prevalence of 55.8% for oocysts, significantly higher in rodents (72.4%) compared to chickens (25%).
  • The findings emphasize the need for further research to identify the specific species involved and assess their potential public health implications in the region.
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Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection leads to around 800,000 deaths yearly and is considered to be a major public health problem worldwide. However, HBV origins remain poorly understood. Here, we looked for bat HBV (BtHBV) in different bat species in Gabon to investigate the role of these animals as carriers of ancestral hepadnaviruses because these viruses are much more diverse in bats than in other host species.

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Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a tick-borne viral disease with a mortality rate reaching up to 40% in humans. Currently, CCHF affects three continents: Asia, Europe, and Africa. An increase in confirmed cases in Africa has been observed since 2000.

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Objectives: Mpox is a neglected viral endemic tropical disease in Central and Western African countries transmitted to humans by an animal. However, the natural reservoir of the virus remains elusive. In this study, we looked for potential reservoirs of the mpox virus (MPXV) in Gabonese wildlife to prevent future outbreaks and enrich the literature with additional data on animal reservoirs.

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  • * Researchers found that 4 out of 163 tested wild ruminants were positive for RVFV, with a genetic link to a virus from Namibia, indicating RVF's presence in Gabon's wildlife.
  • * In a separate survey of 306 domestic animals, they found 15.4% had RVFV-specific antibodies, predominantly in goats, emphasizing the need for improved surveillance and control measures for RVF in the region.
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Objectives: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains a public health threat in middle- and low-income countries, where mother-to-child transmission plays an important role. The aim of this study was to assess the burden of this infection among pregnant women in southern Gabon and the risk of vertical transmission.

Methods: The study was a prospective investigation conducted from April 2021 to January 2022.

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  • - The study focused on screening astroviruses (AstVs), enteroviruses (EVs), and caliciviruses (CaVs) in domestic animals to understand their potential to spread zoonotic diseases in rural Central Africa, where these animals interact closely with wildlife.
  • - Researchers collected rectal swabs from 123 goats, 41 sheep, and 76 dogs across 10 villages in northeastern Gabon, using PCR to detect various viruses by amplifying specific genes.
  • - Out of 240 samples, 23 tested positive for the viruses, with the majority found in goats, and some sequences clustering with known viruses that could pose a risk to humans, suggesting these animals could harbor pathogens that affect human health.
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The COVID-19 disease presents a large range of clinical manifestations and includes asymptomatic, mild, and severe cases. The level of severity is related to parameters associated with immunity, genetics, and biochemistry. Africa shows one of the lowest COVID-19 fatality rates but very few data on the biochemical markers of COVID-19 in patients and the factors associated with disease severity are available for the continent.

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  • A study was conducted in Gabon to monitor the COVID-19 epidemic, focusing on the first 1161 suspected cases from March 2020.
  • Out of these cases, 83 were confirmed as positive for COVID-19, with 73% of those infected showing no symptoms.
  • The research found that viral loads were higher in nasopharyngeal samples compared to oropharyngeal samples, but no significant differences were observed in viral loads across different age groups or in relation to clinical symptoms.
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The geographic and evolutionary origins of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant (BA.1), which was first detected mid-November 2021 in Southern Africa, remain unknown. We tested 13,097 COVID-19 patients sampled between mid-2021 to early 2022 from 22 African countries for BA.

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Rabies is a zoonotic neurological life-threatening neglected tropical disease present worldwide, and Gabon is listed as an endemic country. However, despite strong clinical suspicion in humans and molecular confirmation of rabies virus (RABV) infections in dogs for several decades, no molecularly confirmed human case in Gabon has ever been reported. In this study, we describe two cases of human rabies and provide the first molecular diagnostic report on suspected human rabies cases in Gabon.

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Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the SARS-CoV-2 viral dynamics in Africa have been less documented than on other continents. In Gabon, a Central African country, a total number of 37,511 cases of COVID-19 and 281 deaths have been reported as of December 8, 2021. After the first COVID-19 case was reported on March 12, 2020, in the capital Libreville, the country experienced two successive waves.

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Rodents are reservoirs of numerous zoonotic diseases caused by bacteria, protozoans, or viruses. In Gabon, the circulation and maintenance of rodent-borne zoonotic infectious agents are poorly studied and are often limited to one type of pathogen. Among the three existing studies on this topic, two are focused on a zoonotic virus, and the third is focused on rodent Plasmodium.

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Little research on coronaviruses has been conducted on wild animals in Africa. Here, we screened a wide range of wild animals collected in six provinces and five caves of Gabon between 2009 and 2015. We collected a total of 1867 animal samples (cave-dwelling bats, rodents, non-human primates and other wild animals).

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Background: Plasmodium falciparum infection can progress unpredictably to severe forms including respiratory distress and cerebral malaria. The mechanisms underlying the variable natural course of malaria remain elusive.

Methods: The cerebral microvascular endothelial cells-D3 and lung endothelial cells both from human were cultured separately and challenged with P.

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Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a zoonotic disease, which caused several epidemics in humans in many countries of Africa. Using an inhibition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), real-time reverse transcription PCR, and nested one-step reverse transcription PCR, we conducted a cross-sectional study in populations of sheep and goats from the Mongo County in 2014 to determine the circulation of the Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) in small ruminants from this area. From a total of 201 small ruminants (95 sheep and 106 goats), the overall IgG seroprevalence against the RVFV was 6.

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The aim of this study was to provide information on trypanosome species infecting trypanotolerant cattle from southern Gabon. The study was conducted on 224 trypanotolerant cattle from three regions located in southern Gabon, using ITS1 primer-based PCR. Seventy-two (32%) N'dama cattle were found polymerase chain reaction (PCR) positive with trypanosomes.

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Background: Orf or contagious ecthyma is a zoonotic viral infection with a potential serious health threat for the small ruminants industry as well as humans. It is currently emerging in new territories.

Results: Eight suspected clinical cases of pustular dermatitis in goats occurred in the rural area of Tebe, in south-eastern Gabon, in January 2013.

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Bats are known to harbor multiple paramyxoviruses. Despite the creation of two new genera, Aquaparamyxovirus and Ferlavirus, to accommodate this increasing diversity, several recently isolated or characterized viruses remain unclassified beyond the subfamily level. In the present study, among 985 bats belonging to 6 species sampled in the Belinga caves of Gabon, RNA of an unclassified paramyxovirus (Belinga bat virus, BelPV) was discovered in 14 African sheath-tailed bats (Coleura afra), one of which exhibited several hemorrhagic lesions at necropsy, and viral sequence was obtained in two animals.

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Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) can cause acute fatal disease on all continents but was never detected in Africa. We report the first detection of LCMV RNA in a common European house mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) in Africa. Phylogenetic analyses show a close relationship with North American strains.

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The factors implicated in the transition from uncomplicated to severe clinical malaria such as pulmonary oedema and cerebral malaria remain unclear. It is known that alterations in vascular integrity due to endothelial cell (EC) activation and death occur during severe malaria. In this study, we assessed the ability of different P.

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Background: The adhesion of Plasmodium falciparum parasitized red blood cell (PRBC) to human endothelial cells (EC) induces inflammatory processes, coagulation cascades, oxidative stress and apoptosis. These pathological processes are suspected to be responsible for the blood-brain-barrier and other organs' endothelial dysfunctions observed in fatal cases of malaria. Atorvastatin, a drug that belongs to the lowering cholesterol molecule family of statins, has been shown to ameliorate endothelial functions and is widely used in patients with cardiovascular disorders.

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