Invasive Meningococcal Disease Remains a Health Threat in Vietnam People's Army.

Objective: Despite strict surveillance, still causes life-threatening invasive meningococcal disease (IMD). The study aimed to describe the prevalence, clinical and subclinical features, and treatment outcomes of IMD among young soldiers of the Vietnam People's Army.

Methods: A prospective, population-based surveillance study was conducted in all Vietnamese military hospitals from January 2014 to June 2021.

Building HIV healthcare worker capacity through telehealth in Vietnam.

Development of a robust technical assistance system is an essential component of a sustainable HIV response. Vietnam's National HIV Program is transitioning from a largely donor-funded programme to one primarily supported by domestic resources. Telehealth interventions are increasingly being used for training, mentoring and expert consultation in high-resource settings and hold significant potential for use as a tool to build HIV health worker capacity in low and middle-income countries.

Recombinase Polymerase Amplification and Lateral Flow Assay for Ultrasensitive Detection of Low-Density Plasmodium falciparum Infection from Controlled Human Malaria Infection Studies and Naturally Acquired Infections.

Microscopy and rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are the main diagnostic tools for malaria but fail to detect low-density parasitemias that are important for maintaining malaria transmission. To complement existing diagnostic methods, an isothermal reverse transcription-recombinase polymerase amplification and lateral flow assay (RT-RPA) was developed. We compared the performance with that of ultrasensitive reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (uRT-qPCR) using nucleic acid extracts from blood samples ( = 114) obtained after standardized controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) with sporozoites.

DNA recovery from archived RDTs for genetic characterization of Plasmodium falciparum in a routine setting in Lambaréné, Gabon.

Background: Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) have been described as a source of genetic material to analyse malaria parasites in proof-of-concept studies. The increasing use of RDTs (e.g.

Characterization of Plasmodium infections among inhabitants of rural areas in Gabon.

Plasmodium infections in endemic areas are often asymptomatic, can be caused by different species and contribute significantly to transmission. We performed a cross-sectional study in February/March 2016 including 840 individuals ≥ 1 year living in rural Gabon (Ngounié and Moyen-Ogooué). Plasmodium parasitemia was measured by high-sensitive, real-time quantitative PCR.

Efficacy and Safety of Fosmidomycin-Piperaquine as Nonartemisinin-Based Combination Therapy for Uncomplicated Falciparum Malaria: A Single-Arm, Age De-escalation Proof-of-Concept Study in Gabon.

Background: Fosmidomycin-piperaquine is being developed as nonartemisinin-based combination therapy to meet the challenge of emerging artemisinin resistance.

Methods: The study was a phase 2, single-arm, proof-of-concept study of the efficacy, tolerability, and safety of fosmidomycin-piperaquine for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum monoinfection in Gabon. Adults and children of both sexes with initial parasite counts between 1000 and 150000/µL received oral treatment with fosmidomycin (twice daily doses of 30 mg/kg) and piperaquine (once daily dose of 16 mg/kg) for 3 days and followed-up for 63 days.

Impact of Sickle Cell Trait and Naturally Acquired Immunity on Uncomplicated Malaria after Controlled Human Malaria Infection in Adults in Gabon.

Controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) by direct venous inoculation (DVI) with 3,200 cryopreserved sporozoites (PfSPZ) consistently leads to parasitemia and malaria symptoms in malaria-naive adults. We used CHMI by DVI to investigate infection rates, parasite kinetics, and malaria symptoms in lifelong malaria-exposed (semi-immune) Gabonese adults with and without sickle cell trait. Eleven semi-immune Gabonese with normal hemoglobin (IA), nine with sickle cell trait (IS), and five nonimmune European controls with normal hemoglobin (NI) received 3,200 PfSPZ by DVI and were followed 28 days for parasitemia by thick blood smear (TBS) and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and for malaria symptoms.