Publications by authors named "Valerie Flore Donkeng Donfack"
Article Synopsis
- Tuberculosis (TB) is facing a significant challenge due to drug resistance, with Cameroon reporting a 1.4% prevalence of drug-resistant TB among new cases and 8.3% among those being retreated in 2022.
- A study analyzed data from 2013 to 2022 in Cameroon, examining the trends, risk factors, and treatment outcomes related to drug-resistant TB, finding a total of 567 reported cases.
- The study reported a high database quality (93.7%) and highlighted concerning treatment outcomes, including an 11.9% refusal rate and a 14.8% case fatality rate, with male gender and HIV-positive status identified as significant risk factors for poor treatment outcomes.
Article Synopsis
- The epidemiology and ecology of Mycobacterium ulcerans (MU) infections are not well understood, especially regarding disease burden, host range, and transmission methods.
- A review of 155 articles from various countries showed MU's presence in humans, animals, plants, and environmental samples, with prevalence rates varying widely.
- Significant gaps exist in understanding the viability of MU in non-human reservoirs, prompting a need for further research on its transmission routes and host interactions.
Background: Cameroon is a tuberculosis (TB) burden country with a 12% positivity among TB presumptive cases. Of the presumptive cases with a negative TB test, some are infected with Non-tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM). However, the diagnosis of NTM infections remains difficult due to the lack of tools in many laboratories, particularly in resource limited laboratories and remote setting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Active tuberculosis (TB) case finding is important as it helps detect pulmonary TB cases missed by the other active screening methods. It requires periodic mass screening in risk population groups such as prisoners and refugees. Unfortunately, in these risk population groups periodic mass screening can be challenging due to lengthy turnaround time (TAT), cost and implementation constraints.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiabetes mellitus and tuberculosis, a systematic review and meta-analysis with sensitivity analysis for studies comparable for confounders.
PLoS One
February 2022
Article Synopsis
- The systematic review aimed to assess the relationship between diabetes mellitus (DM) and the risk of developing tuberculosis (TB), addressing confounders like age, gender, and lifestyle factors that previous studies may have overlooked.
- A total of 12,796 articles were screened, leading to the inclusion of 47 observational studies with over half a million DM or TB cases, and results indicated a significant association with an odds ratio of 2.3, meaning diabetics were more than twice as likely to develop TB compared to non-diabetics.
- The study confirmed that the increased TB risk persisted across various study types (cohort, case-control, cross-sectional) and was influenced by geographic differences, though the statistical significance remained consistent