Implementing a physician-driven feeding protocol is not sufficient to achieve adequate caloric and protein delivery in a paediatric intensive care unit: A retrospective cohort study.

Background And Aims: Daily caloric and protein intake is crucial for the management of critically ill children. The benefit of feeding protocols in improving daily nutritional intake in children remains controversial. This study aimed to assess whether the introduction of an enteral feeding protocol in a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) improves daily caloric and protein delivery on day 5 after admission and the accuracy of the medical prescription.

[Kidney biopsy in subsaharan Africa].

Materials And Methods: We carried out a retrospective and descriptive study on biopsies examined between January 2015 and December 2019, in the pathological departments of University Teaching Hospital of Bouaké and Cocody-Abidjan. The KB came from four countries (Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Guinea-Conakry and Burkina Faso). Optical microscopy and/or direct immunofluorescence techniques were used.

Use of traditional medicine and control of hypertension in 12 African countries.

Background: Use of traditional medicine (TM) is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa as a treatment option for a wide range of disease. We aimed to describe main characteristics of TM users and estimate the association of TM use with control of hypertension.

Methods: We used data on 2128 hypertensive patients of a cross-sectional study (convenience sampling), who attended cardiology departments of 12 sub-Saharan African countries (Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, Togo).

Culture, school pregnancies, and society: pubertal rites in Côte d'Ivoire.

It is essential to understand the relationship between pubertal rites and the goals of socioeconomic insertion of children to school. Formal education promotes girls' rights and contributes to the creation of an egalitarian society. It empowers women to make better informed life choices.

Poor adherence to medication and salt restriction as a barrier to reaching blood pressure control in patients with hypertension: Cross-sectional study from 12 sub-Saharan countries.

Background: Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing a rising burden of hypertension. Antihypertensive medications and diet are the cornerstone of effective hypertension control.

Aims: To assess adherence to medication and salt restriction in 12 sub-Saharan countries, and to study the relationship between adherence and blood pressure control in patients with hypertension.

Mapping livestock movements in Sahelian Africa.

In the dominant livestock systems of Sahelian countries herds have to move across territories. Their mobility is often a source of conflict with farmers in the areas crossed, and helps spread diseases such as Rift Valley Fever. Knowledge of the routes followed by herds is therefore core to guiding the implementation of preventive and control measures for transboundary animal diseases, land use planning and conflict management.

Cardiac Pacing in Sub-Saharan Africa: JACC International.

Many parts of the developing world, especially Sub-Saharan Africa, completely lack access to cardiac pacing. The authors initiated a multinational program to implement cardiac pacing in 14 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (1996 to 2018), aiming to eventually build self-sustainable capacity in each country. This was based on an "on-site training" approach of performing procedures locally and educating local health care teams to work within resource-limited settings, with prospective evaluation of the program.

Immunohistochemical Evaluation of Ki-67 and Comparison with Clinicopathologic Factors in Breast Carcinomas.

Background: Patients primarily received tamoxifen based on their menopausal status due to the lack of immunohistochemistry. A recent study has shown that hormonal receptors were not correlated with menopausal status, and thus, indicating that they present limited therapeutic and prognostic significance in breast cancer management. This study aimed to evaluate Ki-67 value and analyze its association with clinicopathologic parameters in breast cancer patients.

Statistics on the use of cardiac electronic devices and interventional electrophysiological procedures in Africa from 2011 to 2016: report of the Pan African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR) Cardiac Arrhythmias and Pacing Task Forces.

Aims: To provide comprehensive information on the access and use of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED) and catheter ablation procedures in Africa.

Methods And Results: The Pan-African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR) collected data on invasive management of cardiac arrhythmias from 2011 to 2016 from 31 African countries. A specific template was completed by physicians, and additional information obtained from industry.

Optimizing the management of acute coronary syndromes in sub-Saharan Africa: A statement from the AFRICARDIO 2015 Consensus Team.

Background: Whereas the coronary artery disease death rate has declined in high-income countries, the incidence of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) is increasing in sub-Saharan Africa, where their management remains a challenge.

Aim: To propose a consensus statement to optimize management of ACS in sub-Saharan Africa on the basis of realistic considerations.

Methods: The AFRICARDIO-2 conference (Yamoussoukro, May 2015) reviewed the ongoing features of ACS in 10 sub-Saharan countries (Benin, Burkina-Faso, Congo-Brazzaville, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo), and analysed whether improvements in strategies and policies may be expected using readily available healthcare facilities.

Remote sensing and geographic information systems to predict the density of ruminants, hosts of Rift Valley fever virus in the Sahel.

Rift Valley fever (RVF) is an acute arboviral disease of domestic ungulates and humans in Africa and the Middle East. Since the first epidemic in 1987, Senegal has been confronted with recurrent episodes of the disease. This study aimed to model spatial distribution of ruminants in the agropastoral area of Barkedji (Senegal) where the disease is enzootic.

Senegalese grandmothers promote improved maternal and child nutrition practices: the guardians of tradition are not averse to change.

The vast majority of community nutrition/health programs in developing countries focus on women of reproductive age (WRA) and a few explicitly involve senior women, or grandmothers. In Senegal, as in many other places, older, experienced women play an influential role in household maternal and child health (MCH) matters. Formative research in Serer villages revealed their importance and this was taken into account in an action research nutrition education (NE) project in which grandmothers were encouraged to promote improved nutritional practices related to pregnancy (e.

A randomised trial in Mali of the effectiveness of weekly iron supplements given by teachers on the haemoglobin concentrations of schoolchildren.

Objective: To assess the effect on the haemoglobin concentrations of schoolchildren of weekly iron tablets administered by teachers.

Design: Sixty schools were randomly assigned to two groups: in 30 schools children were given weekly for 10 weeks a tablet providing 65 mg of iron and 0.25 mg of folic acid; in the other 30 schools no iron tablets were given.

Clinical classification of diabetes in tropical west Africa.

The objective of this work was to classify and describe the different types of diabetic patients detected in West Africa. In four health centres (three in Ivory Coast, one in Niger) 310 new cases were detected and followed up over 1 year. Classification was based on age at diagnosis, BMI, ketonuria, basal and stimulated C-peptide levels at inclusion, and response to antidiabetic therapy.

A survey of leprosy impairments and disabilities among patients treated by MDT in Burkina Faso.

Since 1990, Burkina Faso, a West African country, has carried out a national leprosy control program treating with WHO/MDT nearly 12,000 patients between 1990 and 1994. A sample survey of 600 cases among these patients showed that 29.8% were disabled cases.

[Development of primary resistance of tuberculosis bacilli in Mali between 1980 and 1990].

The survey of the primary resistances of tuberculosis bacilli to drugs is not only important epidemiologically speaking, but also for its use as a guideline to defining programs, to assessing the quality and the practical development of chemotherapy in a country, to measuring the propensity of the resisting tuberculosis bacilli to infect a given population within some time and to taking the necessary remedial measures. The object of this study has been to compare the rate of initial drugs' resistances of tuberculosis bacilli in Mali between 1980-1982 and 1989-1990. The results, which show a fall in the primary resistances due to drugs and to the combination of antibiotics as well, are being discussed while taking account various factors related to the organization.

Hospitalizations in Niger (West Africa) for complications from arterial hypertension.

Fifty-four patients hospitalized in Niger for complications from hypertension between September 1988 and October 1989 were studied. The following complications were observed: left ventricular hypertrophy (56%), coronary vascular defect (35%), left heart deficiency (26%), cardiac failure (32%), retinopathy (56%), renal insufficiency (35%), and stroke (24%). The most frequent risk factor was Type A personality (76%), followed by stress (48%), excess weight (37%), tobacco use (35%), hyperuricemia (35%), hypercholesteremia (17%), and diabetes (15%).

[Idiopathic annular submitral aneurysm. Contribution of echography apropos of 5 cases].

The authors report 5 cases of annular subvalvular left ventricular idiopathic aneurysm observed within less than 4 years (April 1984 to October 1987) at the hospital of Niamey, Niger. All 5 patients were examined by echocardiography, an exploratory technique which is new for this type of disease. The condition is rare and has been described mostly in black people living in African countries.

[Postpartum myocardiopathy. Clinical and echographic evaluations of the response to treatment. 30 cases observed in the Sudan-sahelian area].

Thirty cases of postpartum cardiomyopathy observed in a savannah-sahelian region of Africa (Niamey, Republic of Niger) are reported. The dilated cardiomyopathy was diagnosed by comparing clinical signs with electrocardiographic, radioscopic and echocardiographic findings. A simplified therapeutic regimen was used in all cases: rest during 2 months, sodium restriction, diuretic and digoxin therapy (1 tablet of each drug every other day).

Iron deficiency, pregnancy and breast-feeding in the Republic of Niger.

Body iron stores in 173 African women were evaluated by serum ferritin radioimmunoassay. The population studied was selected only by its accessibility in Guesheme, Dosso county, and other villages in Niamey and Dosso counties, Republic of niger. Iron fumarate (Fumafer) was systematically administered orally (400 mg/d) for one month.

Endemic treponematoses in Togo and other west African states.

In 1970 an alarming increase in the number of cases of treponematoses in general and yaws in particular began to be apparent in sub-Saharan Africa, yet official reports usually underestimate the extent of these diseases. Thus, a clinical and serologic investigation of the prevalence of yaws was conducted in May 1981 in Togo. The proportion of examined persons found to have clinical yaws lesions varied from 1% to 3.

A simple kit system for rapid diagnosis of cerebrospinal meningitis in rural areas of developing countries.

A simple, easily operated, portable diagnostic kit, employing coagglutination reagents, has been developed for the rapid, bedside diagnosis of cerebrospinal meningitis. Field trials using this kit were conducted in a rural area of sub-Saharan Africa for identifying the etiological agents of meningitis outbreaks. West African village medical attendants were taught to use this kit and succeeded in making rapid specific diagnoses of meningitis cases.