Suchergebnisse

Lassa fever is a viral zoonotic tropical disease endemic in parts of West Africa. It causes substantial mortality, morbidity and economic burdens on affected populations. The year 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the first diagnosis of Lassa fever in Nigeria. Over the years, a few and sporadic intervention measures have been undertaken to control Lassa fever in Nigeria. However, the disease has remained a burden due to neglect, and apathy from the Government. Here we highlight the Lassa fever control efforts so far undertaken in Nigeria. We also point to some challenges and opportunities for effective Lassa fever control efforts. In addition, we proposed few Lassa fever control measures, which vary from advocacies, training of local communities and health workers in the use of rapid, cheap diagnostic tools. We also propose an integrated genomic surveillance platform that utilizes one health approach, in tracking and tackling Lassa fever, as the key future of Lassa fever control effort. In this review, we present IGOHRAL, an integrated genomic platform that utilizes clinical, genomic and epidemiological data in a one-health approach to tackle Lassa fever problem.Lassa fever (LF) is a serious viral hemorrhagic fever endemic in West Africa. The history of Lassa fever virus (LVS) in Nigeria is that of neglect, wickedness and apathy (Akpede et al., 2018). Lassa virus was first diagnosed in a missionary hospital in Nigeria in 1969 (Carey et al., 1972). There was an outbreak of a febrile illness involving hospital staff and those who visited the hospitals. The aetiology was later confirmed to be LVS. Prior to this outbreak, there have been several descriptions of illness resembling LF (Monath, 1975). However, a genomics study by Anderson et al. later confirmed that the LVS emerged in present day Nigeria over 1060 years ago (Andersen et al., 2015).

Abstract Background In Nigeria ACT use at the community level has not been evaluated and the use of antimalarial drugs (commonly chloroquine (CQ)) at home has been shown to be largely incorrect. The treatment regimen of ACT is however more complicated than that of CQ. There is thus a need to determine the feasibility of using ACT at the home level and determine community perception on its use. Methods A before and after qualitative study using key informant interviews (KII) and focus group discussions (FGDs) was conducted in selected villages in Ona-Ara local government area. At baseline, 14 FGDs and 14 KIIs were conducted. Thereafter, community medicine distributors (CMDs) were trained in each village to dispense artemeter-lumenfantrine (AL) to febrile children aged 6–59 months presumed to have uncomplicated malaria. After one year of drug distribution, nine KIIs and 10 FGDs were conducted. Participants and key informants were mothers and fathers with children under five years, traditional heads of communities, opinion leaders and health workers. Results None of the participants have heard of AL prior to study. Participants were favourably disposed to introduction of AL into the community. Mothers/caregivers were said to have used AL in place of the orthodox drugs and herbs reported commonly used prior to study after commencement of AL distribution. The use of CMDs for drug distribution was acceptable to the participants and they were judged to be efficient as they were readily available, distributed correct dose of AL and mobilised the community effectively. AL was perceived to be very effective and no significant adverse event was reported. Major concerns to the sustainability of the program were the negative attitudes of health workers towards discharge of their duties, support to the CMDs and the need to provide CMDs incentives. In addition regular supply of drugs and adequate supervision of CMDs were advised. Conclusion Our findings showed that the use of AL at home and community level is feasible with adequate training of community medicine distributors and caregivers. Community members perceived AL to be effective thus fostering acceptability. The negative attitudes of the health workers and issue of incentives to CMDs need to be addressed for successful scaling-up of ACT use at community level.

In 2014, Ebola virus (EBOV) was identified as the etiological agent of a large and still expanding outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa and a much more confined EVD outbreak in Middle Africa. Epidemiological and evolutionary analyses confirmed that all cases of both outbreaks are connected to a single introduction each of EBOV into human populations and that both outbreaks are not directly connected. Coding-complete genomic sequence analyses of isolates revealed that the two outbreaks were caused by two novel EBOV variants, and initial clinical observations suggest that neither of them should be considered strains. Here we present consensus decisions on naming for both variants (West Africa: "Makona", Middle Africa: "Lomela") and provide database-compatible full, shortened, and abbreviated names that are in line with recently established filovirus sub-species nomenclatures. ; This work was funded in part through Battelle Memorial Institute's prime contract with the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under Contract No. HHSN272200700016I. ; http://www.mdpi.com/journal/viruses ; hb2015

In 2014, Ebola virus (EBOV) was identified as the etiological agent of a large and still expanding outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa and a much more confined EVD outbreak in Middle Africa. Epidemiological and evolutionary analyses confirmed that all cases of both outbreaks are connected to a single introduction each of EBOV into human populations and that both outbreaks are not directly connected. Coding-complete genomic sequence analyses of isolates revealed that the two outbreaks were caused by two novel EBOV variants, and initial clinical observations suggest that neither of them should be considered strains. Here we present consensus decisions on naming for both variants (West Africa: "Makona", Middle Africa: "Lomela") and provide database-compatible full, shortened, and abbreviated names that are in line with recently established filovirus sub-species nomenclatures.