Publications by authors named "Yohane Diness"
Article Synopsis
- Environmental surveillance helps scientists study how Salmonella Typhi (the germ that causes typhoid fever) spreads in places where many people are sick and there's not much clean water.
- Researchers tested water samples from 43 sites in Blantyre, Malawi, and found that about 2.1% of some samples and 3.9% of other samples had the germ in them.
- They noticed that the presence of human waste in the water was linked to more chances of finding the germ, but the timing of when they found it didn't match with the number of people getting sick, showing that this testing can still help track the germ even when fewer people have typhoid fever.
was isolated from 23/79 (29.1%) pooled gecko stool samples from households in southern Malawi. Whole genome sequencing of 47 individual isolates within this collection revealed 27 serovars spanning two subspecies.
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- Invasive Salmonella infections are a major health issue in Sub-Saharan Africa, but the specifics of how the disease spreads are not fully understood.
- A study conducted in Blantyre, Malawi involved recruiting 60 patients with invasive Salmonella infections and comparing them with matched control households to sample bacteria from various sources.
- Results showed that while some Salmonella strains from patients matched those found in household members, there was no connection to strains found in animals or the environment, suggesting that iNTS infections may spread directly between humans.
Article Synopsis
- The study focuses on developing a method for detecting Salmonella Typhi (S. Typhi) in environmental samples to improve monitoring of typhoid outbreaks.
- Researchers tested various culture media and found a successful pathway for isolating viable S. Typhi from river water samples in Malawi, using a combination of broths and agar followed by PCR confirmation.
- This research marks the first successful isolation of S. Typhi from the environment in decades, highlighting the importance of integrating environmental testing with clinical data for better disease surveillance and public health interventions.
Background: Studies have shown that households using sludge from human excreta for agriculture are at an increased risk of soil transmitted helminths. However, while use of ecological sanitation (EcoSan) latrines is increasing in most African countries including Malawi, few studies have been done to check whether use of such sludge could potentially increase the prevalence of helminthic infections among household members as a results of exposure to faecal sludge/compared to use of traditional latrines.
Methods: A cross sectional study was done targeting households using EcoSan and traditional pit latrines.