Lipoprotein (a) profile in HIV-1 infected patients treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART)

Lipoprotein (a) [Lp(a)] is recognized as an independent factor of arteriosclerosis. The aim of this study was to appreciate the profile of Lipoprotein (a) recognized as an independent factor of arteriosclerosis in the monitoring of HIV-infected patients receiving Nevirapine (NVP) regimens, an antiretroviral known to reduce cardiovascular disease risk. The study population (136 subjects) comprise of 106 HIV-infected subjects, and 30 HIV-negative individuals. The 106 HIV-infected subjects were divided into groups as follows. HAART-untreated (27), HIV-infected subjects that did not receive antiretroviral treatment; HAART-6M (36), HIV-infected subjects on antiretroviral treatment for six months; and HAART-12M (43), HIV-infected subjects on antiretroviral treatment for twelve months. All recruited patients had normal blood lipids values (Total cholesterol < 5.2 mmol/L, Triglycerides < 2 g/L, HDLc > 0.9 mmol/L). The Lp(a) levels were significantly higher in the HIV-infected group compared to the control (p = 0.0036). Within the HIV-infected subjects, Lp(a) level was found to be higher in HAART-treated group compared to HAART naive group (p=0.004). Infected subjects on the antiretroviral treatment for12 months had higher Lp(a) levels than those treated for 6 months (p=0.034). This study shows that adequate management of metabolic abnormalities of HAART-treated HIV-infected patients must include periodic measurement of Lp(a) levels

Le droit matrimonial en Côte d'Ivoire 1901-2012. Entre unification législative et résistances coutumières

The inefficiency of the positive law in Africa is considered as one of the underlying reasons of its underdevelopment and/or of its development malaise. The state of lawlessness that prevails in Côte d’Ivoire in marriage-related issues appears to be the case in point, being one of the most instructive and globalizing within the correlations between legal order and development in its widest sense. As a matter of fact, like in all of the former French colonies of French West Africa block, Côte d’Ivoire’s legal (at least, in a positivist sense) system is a product of its colonial past. Therefore, the legal systems in all these young African states are naturally inspired by the French law, through the channel of colonial law. However, Côte d’Ivoire’s solution differs from most of those of its fellow regional states. The new Ivorian government opted for an outright alignment of their law and the legal system with that of the former colonizer. For the civil law, this translated into the adoption of the French Code of 1804, taken for a token of development and social revolution, at the expense of countless civil customs considered to be incompatible with the new constitutional order and nation-building. Out of this political will of assimilation and legal unification - that has been ongoing in Côte d’Ivoire since independence - was born a true conflict of norms. On the one hand, a state law, especially in matrimonial matters, is prevalent but still strives to take root. On the other hand, civil customs that are still attractive bite into the credibility of the official law.L’ineffectivité du droit positif en Afrique est considérée comme l’une des principales causes de son sous-développement et/ou de son mal de développement. A titre d’illustration, la situation de « non-droit » qui prévaut en Côte d’Ivoire en matière matrimoniale apparaît comme l’une des plus édifiantes de cette corrélation entre ordonnancement juridique et développement (lato sensu)En effet, à l’instar de toutes les anciennes colonies françaises du bloc de l’Afrique Occidentale Française, la Côte d’Ivoire hérite du fait juridique (du moins dans son acception positiviste) de la colonisation. Il s’ensuit que, naturellement, le système juridique de l’ensemble de ces jeunes Etats africains trouve son inspiration, par le canal du droit colonial, dans le droit français. Mais la Côte d’Ivoire a adopté une solution différente de celles de la plupart des autres Etats. Les nouveaux gouvernants ivoiriens prirent le parti d’aligner purement et simplement leur droit sur celui de leur ancien colonisateur. Cela se traduisit au civil par l’adoption du Code français de 1804, donné comme un gage de développement et de révolution sociale, au détriment des innombrables coutumes civiles, considérées comme étant inconciliables avec le nouvel ordre constitutionnel et l’édification d’une nation ivoirienne. De cette volonté politique d'assimilation et d’unification juridique, qui se perpétue en Côte d’Ivoire depuis son accession à la souveraineté, naquit un véritable conflit de normes, entre d’une part, un droit étatique, notamment en matière matrimoniale, qui prévaut mais ne s’enracine pas, et d’autre part, des coutumes civiles, dont l’attrait pèse sur la crédibilité du droit officiel