Publications by authors named "Nissaf Bouafif Ben-Alaya"
Typhoid fever is a significant public health concern in many parts of the world, particularly in developing countries with poor sanitation and hygiene conditions. In July 2016, an outbreak of typhoid fever occurred in Ghannouche, located in the south of Tunisia. This paper reports the results of a field investigation undertaken to identify possible transmission pathways and risk factors in order to propose control and preventive measures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: the purpose of this study was to describe the clinical and epidemiological features of COVID-19-related deaths in Tunisia notified at the ONMNE (National Observatory of New and emerging Diseases) between 2 March 2020 and 28 February 2021 and to compare COVID-19-related deaths recorded in Tunisia with the international data.
Methods: we conducted a national prospective longitudinal descriptive study of data collected from the National Surveillance System of SARS-CoV-2 infection of the ONMNE, Ministry of Health. All COVID-19-related deaths that occurred in Tunisia between March 2020 and February 2021 were included in this study.
Article Synopsis
- There is a lack of national studies on HPV genotype distribution in Tunisia, making it difficult to evaluate the burden of cervical cancer that could be prevented by vaccines.
- A national survey conducted between December 2012 and December 2014 analyzed HPV prevalence in a sample of 1,517 Tunisian women, finding an overall infection rate of 7.8%.
- Key risk factors identified included residing in the Grand Tunis region, marital status, smoking, occupation, and having multiple sexual partners, highlighting the need for increased HPV vaccination efforts and cervical cancer prevention programs in Tunisia.
Background: The aim of this study was to characterize the transmission chains and clusters of COVID-19 infection in Tunisia.
Methods: All cases were confirmed by Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction of a nasopharyngeal specimen. Contact tracing is undertaken for all confirmed cases in order to identify close contacts that will be systematically screened and quarantined.
Background: The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues to constitute an international public health concern. Few data are available on the duration and prognostic factors of the disease. We aimed to study the recovery time among a Tunisian cohort of COVID-19 confirmed patients and identify the prognostic factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Defining the start and assessing the intensity of influenza seasons are essential to ensure timely preventive and control measures and to contribute to the pandemic preparedness. The present study aimed to determine the epidemic and intensity thresholds of influenza season in Tunisia using the moving epidemic method.
Methods: We applied the moving epidemic method (MEM) using the R Language implementation (package "mem").
Background: This study was initiated to evaluate, for the first time, the performance and quality of the influenza-like illness (ILI) surveillance system in Tunisia.
Methods: The evaluation covered the period of 2012-2015 and used different data sources to measure indicators related to data quality and completeness, representativeness, timeliness, simplicity, acceptability, flexibility, stability and utility.
Results: During the evaluation period, 485.
Background: The genes encoding renin-angiotensin system (RAS) components are potent candidate genes in both hypertension and diabetes namely ACE encoding the angiotensin converting enzyme and AGT encoding angiotensinogen. It has been suggested that the insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism in intron 16 of ACE gene is associated with ACE levels, and M235T gene polymorphism is associated with plasma AGT levels.
Aim: We examined in this report the association between ACE I/D and AGT M235T polymorphisms with hypertension status in Tunisian type 2 diabetic subjects.