Publications by authors named "Younouss Diedhiou"

Background: Drug resistance in Plasmodium falciparum is a major threat to malaria control efforts. Pathogen genomic surveillance could be invaluable for monitoring current and emerging parasite drug resistance.

Methods: Data from two decades (2000-2020) of continuous molecular surveillance of P.

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Article Synopsis
  • Genetic surveillance of Plasmodium falciparum can help National Malaria Control Programmes estimate parasite transmission using metrics like multi-strain infections and infection complexity, despite uncertainties about their ability to directly predict clinical incidence.
  • In a study involving 3,147 clinical infections across Senegal from 2012-2020, researchers used genetic analysis to correlate genetic metrics with malaria incidence at different clinic sites.
  • Results indicated that genetic metrics reliably predicted incidence when transmission was high (over 10 cases per 1,000 annually), but showed reversed correlations at lower transmission levels, suggesting a limit to the use of genetics in estimating incidence during low transmission periods.
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Genetic surveillance of the parasite shows great promise for helping National Malaria Control Programs (NMCPs) assess parasite transmission. Genetic metrics such as the frequency of polygenomic (multiple strain) infections, genetic clones, and the complexity of infection (COI, number of strains per infection) are correlated with transmission intensity. However, despite these correlations, it is unclear whether genetic metrics alone are sufficient to estimate clinical incidence.

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We here analyze data from the first year of an ongoing nationwide program of genetic surveillance of Plasmodium falciparum parasites in Senegal. The analysis is based on 1097 samples collected at health facilities during passive malaria case detection in 2019; it provides a baseline for analyzing parasite genetic metrics as they vary over time and geographic space. The study's goal was to identify genetic metrics that were informative about transmission intensity and other aspects of transmission dynamics, focusing on measures of genetic relatedness between parasites.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers studied non-malarial febrile illness (NMFI) in Senegal, finding it is hard to understand and diagnose.
  • In their study, they found that 29% of NMFI cases had different germs, mostly bacteria, while some cases had viruses.
  • They created a model to help doctors better identify NMFI based on symptoms and health signs, showing that better testing is really needed.
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Background: Malaria control is highly dependent on the effectiveness of artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), the current frontline malaria curative treatment. Unfortunately, the emergence and spread of parasites resistant to artemisinin (ART) derivatives in Southeast Asia and South America, and more recently in Rwanda and Uganda (East Africa), compromise their long-term use in sub-Saharan Africa, where most malaria deaths occur.

Methods: Here, ex vivo susceptibility to dihydroartemisinin (DHA) was evaluated from 38 Plasmodium falciparum isolates collected in 2017 in Thiès (Senegal) expressed in the Ring-stage Survival Assay (RSA).

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Article Synopsis
  • Scientists are studying how to use parasite genetics to help control malaria in Senegal.
  • They discovered that having multiple different types of parasites in one person can predict local malaria outbreaks.
  • Most related parasites in the country form a big family, which could help identify where malaria is spreading and if certain drugs are becoming less effective against it.
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Introduction: Malaria control is highly dependent on the effectiveness of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), the current frontline malaria curative treatments. Unfortunately, the emergence and spread of parasites resistant to artemisinin (ART) derivatives in Southeast Asia and South America, and more recently in Rwanda and Uganda (East Africa), compromise their long-term use in Sub-Saharan Africa where most malaria deaths occur.

Methods: Here, we evaluated susceptibility to dihydroartemisinin (DHA) from 38 isolates collected in 2017 in Thiès (Senegal) expressed with the Ring-stage Survival Assay (RSA).

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Dengue virus is a major and rapidly growing public health concern in tropic and subtropic regions across the globe. In late 2018, Senegal experienced its largest dengue virus outbreak to date, covering several regions. However, little is known about the genetic diversity of dengue virus (DENV) in Senegal.

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Background: In developing countries, malaria diagnosis relies on microscopy and rapid diagnostic tests. In Senegal, national malaria control program (NMCP) regularly conducts supervisory visits in health services where malaria microscopy is performed. In this study, expert microscopists assessed the performance of laboratory technicians in malaria microscopy.

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Background: Malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) enable point-of-care testing to be nearly as sensitive and specific as reference microscopy. The Senegal National Malaria Control Programme introduced RDTs in 2007, along with a case management algorithm for uncomplicated febrile illness, in which the first step stipulates that if a febrile patient of any age has symptoms indicative of febrile illness other than malaria (e.g.

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