316 research outputs found

    Profiles of opportunistic infections in people living with HIV followed at the Military Hospital of Kinshasa Reference (Camp Kokolo), DRC

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    peer reviewedContext: The in-house techniques or experimental methods are increasingly recommended for their low-cost reagents for the determination of the Viral Load (VL) in resource-limited settings. The objective of this study was to compare the determination of VL from HIV-1 non-B samples by an in-house technique with the COBAS AmpliPrep/TaqMan version 2.0. Method: In this cross-sectional study, 39 plasma samples from patients infected with HIV type 1 non-B from N’Djamena and Kinshasa were used to determine the VL using the two techniques. Results: The mean values of VL are respectively 4.68 ± 1.26 and 4.58 ± 1.33 log10 RNA copies/ml for the COBAS AmpliPrep/TaqMan assays and the in-house assays. A good correlation (Spearman Correlation) was obtained, with a coefficient (R2) of 0.9452. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that there is no significant difference between the results of VL determined by the COBAS AmpliPrep/TaqMan assays and the in-house assays used

    Comparative evaluation of Fungitest, Neosensitabs and broth microdilution method for yeasts susceptibility testing

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    The need of a simple and reliable method for routine yeasts susceptibility testing led us to evaluate two commercially available methods. We investigated the in vitro susceptibility of 67 clinical isolates (26 C. albicans, 32 C. glabrata, 4 C. krusei, 2 C. tropicalis, 2 C. kefyr and 1 S. cerevisiae) to 6 drugs flucytosine (FC), amphotericin B (A), fluconazole (FZ), itraconazole (IT), kétoconazole (K), miconazole (M), comparing two methods Fungitest (Sanofi Pasteur) and Neosensitabs (Rosco). A broth microdilution adaptation from the NCCLS-M27A procedure was used as reference method. Fungitests consist of individually packed 16 wells microplates containing 6 drugs at two critical concentrations in buffered medium. Reading was performed after 24 and 48h incubation. Neosensitabs is an agar diffusion method on Shadomy agar using antifungals tablets. Reading was performed after 24h. For all strains Neosensitabs was in concordance with NCCLS M27-A for FC (94%), A (98%), FZ (55%) I (53%) with p<0.05. Fungitest correlated with NCCLS method for all antifungals after 24 and 48h incubation time (p<0.05) with respectively 95/95% for FC, 100/100% for A, 80/76% for FZ, 81/55% for I and 93/75% for K, and 88/81 for M. Candida glabrata gave the poorest result with Neosensitabs with 28% concordance for FZand 39% for I; therefore the method can't be recommended for this species. Fungitest concordance observed was 55% for I after 48h. Our results suggest that Fungitest is appropriate for routine yeast susceptibility testing. However itraconazole testing has to be improved with this method

    Elective induction of labour and expectant management in late-term pregnancy : A prospective cohort study alongside the INDEX randomised controlled trial

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    Funding Information: BWM reports consultancy for ObsEva. BMW has received research funding from Ferring and Merck. The original RCT was funded by ZonMw: number NTR3431 , Netherlands Trial Registy . BWM is supported by a NHMRC Investigator grant (GNT1176437). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The AuthorsPeer reviewedPublisher PD

    Biennial surveillance of Plasmodium falciparum anti-malarial drug resistance markers in Democratic Republic of Congo, 2017 and 2019

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    peer reviewedBackground: Because of the loss of chloroquine (CQ) effectiveness, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s malaria treatment policy replaced CQ by sulfadoxine–pyrimethamine (SP) as first-line treatment of uncomplicated malaria in 2003, which in turn was replaced by artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACT) in 2005. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends monitoring of anti-malarial drug resistance every 2 years. The study aimed to provide baseline data for biennial molecular surveillance of anti-malarial drug resistance by comparing data from a study conducted in 2019 to previously published data from a similar study conducted in 2017 in the DRC. Methods: From July to November 2019, a cross-sectional study was conducted in ten sites which were previously selected for a similar study conducted in 2017 across the DRC. P. falciparum malaria was diagnosed by a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) or by microscopy and dried blood samples (DBS) were taken from patients who had a positive test. Segments of interest in pfcrt and pfk13 genes were amplified by conventional PCR before sequencing. Results: Out of 1087 enrolled patients, 906 (83.3%) were PCR-confirmed for P. falciparum. Like in the 2017-study, none of the mutations known to be associated with Artemisinine (ART) resistance in Southeast Asia was detected. However, non-synonymous (NS) mutations with unknown functions were observed among which, A578S was detected in both 2017 and 2019-studies. The overall prevalence of pfcrt-K76T mutation that confers CQ-resistance was 22.7% in 2019-study compared to 28.5% in 2017-study (p-value = 0.069), but there was high variability between sites in the two studies. Like in 2017-study, the pfcrt 72–76 SVMNT haplotype associated with resistance to amodiaquine was not detected. Conclusion: The study reported, within 2 years, the non-presence of molecular markers currently known to be associated with resistance to ART and to AQ in P. falciparum isolated in the DRC. However, the presence of polymorphisms with as-yet unknown functions was observed, requiring further characterization. Moreover, an overall decrease in the prevalence of CQ-resistance marker was observed in the DRC, but this prevalence remained highly variable from region to region. © 2022, The Author(s)
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