In vivo antimalarial activity of ginseng extracts.

Context: Novel antimalarial agents are in demand due to the emergence of multidrug resistant strains. Ginseng, a medicinal plant with antiparasitic activity, contains components that can be used to treat the tropical disease malaria.

Objective: Ginsenosides and polysaccharides are active components of ginseng.

Serological evidence of human hantavirus infections in Guinea, West Africa.

We recently discovered a novel hantavirus, Sangassou virus, in Guinea, West Africa. Using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays followed by confirmatory and serotyping assays, we retrospectively detected hantavirus antibodies in 3 (4.4%) of 68 patients with fever of unknown origin in Sangassou village, Forest Guinea.

Fluctuation of abundance and Lassa virus prevalence in Mastomys natalensis in Guinea, West Africa.

Based on empiric surveillance data, the incidence of human Lassa fever (LF) cases in Guinea and other West African countries has been reported to increase during the dry season compared to the rainy season. To investigate possible links with the ecology of the rodent reservoir of the virus, we conducted a 2-year longitudinal survey of Mastomys natalensis in a region of high human Lassa virus (LASV) seropositivity in Guinea. Standardized rodent trapping with similar trapping efforts between seasons was performed in three villages and 53.

Mastomys natalensis and Lassa fever, West Africa.

PCR screening of 1,482 murid rodents from 13 genera caught in 18 different localities of Guinea, West Africa, showed Lassa virus infection only in molecularly typed Mastomys natalensis. Distribution of this rodent and relative abundance compared with M. erythroleucus correlates geographically with Lassa virus seroprevalence in humans.