Genetic analysis of African swine fever virus from the 2018 outbreak in South-Eastern Burundi

African swine fever (ASF) is a contagious viral disease that causes high mortality, approaching 100%, in domestic pigs and wild boars. The disease has neither a cure nor a vaccine, and it is caused by an ASF virus (ASFV), the only member of the family Asfarviridae, genus Asfivirus, and the only known DNA arbovirus. Twenty-four genotypes of ASFV have been described to date, and all of them have been described in Africa. ASF is endemic in Burundi, and several outbreaks have been reported in the country; the disease continues to economically impact on small-scale farmers. This study aimed at genetic characterization of ASFV that caused an ASF outbreak in the Rutana region, Burundi, in the year 2018. Tissue samples from domestic pigs that died as a result of a severe hemorrhagic disease were collected in order to confirm the disease using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and to conduct partial genome sequencing. Nucleotide sequences were obtained for the B646L (p72) gene, the intergenic fragment between the I73R and I329L genes, and the central variable region (CVR) of the B602L gene. Phylogenetic analysis of the Burundian 2018 ASFV grouped the virus within B646L (p72) genotype X and clustered together with those reported during the 1984 and 1990 outbreaks in Burundi with high nucleotide identity to some ASFV strains previously reported in neighboring East African countries, indicating a regional distribution of this ASFV genotype. Analysis of the intergenic fragment between I73R and I329L genes showed that the Burundian 2018 ASFV described in this study lacked a 32-base pair (bp) fragment present in the reference genotype X strain, Kenya 1950. In addition, the strain described in this study had the signature AAABNAABA at the CVR (B602L) gene and showed 100% amino acid sequence identity to viruses responsible for recent ASF outbreaks in the region. The virus described in this study showed high genetic similarities with ASFV strains previously described in domestic pigs, wild suids, and soft ticks in East African countries, indicating a possible common wild source and continuous circulation in domestic pigs in the region

Can a Respiratory Severity Score Accurately Assess Respiratory Distress in Children with Bronchiolitis in a Resource-Limited Setting?

You are the resident on call for the acute pediatric ward in a district hospital in a resource-limited setting. A 9-month-old male infant presents with a 3-day history of coryza and cough followed by difficulty in breathing. The infant is admitted to the acute ward for observation but does not need supplementary oxygen or fluid support. During the ward-round it was felt that his condition at presentation did not warrant admission. You are concerned that by being admitted unnecessarily this infant was put at an unnecessary risk of nosocomial infection. Furthermore, the care is paid for by the family and bed spaces are lacking. You wonder if there is a valid and reliable respiratory distress severity score that may help to accurately assess respiratory distress as a useful adjunct for clinical decision making, to help reduce unnecessary admissions in children with bronchiolitis

Field testing two existing, standardized respiratory severity scores (LIBSS and ReSViNET) in infants presenting with acute respiratory illness to tertiary hospitals in Rwanda - a validation and inter-rater reliability study.

INTRODUCTION: There is a substantial burden of respiratory disease in infants in the sub-Saharan Africa region. Many health care providers (HCPs) that initially receive infants with respiratory distress may not be adequately skilled to differentiate between mild, moderate and severe respiratory symptoms, which may contribute to poor management and outcome. Therefore, respiratory severity scores have the potential to contributing to address this gap. OBJECTIVES: to field-test the use of two existing standardized bronchiolitis severity scores (LIBSS and ReSViNET) in a population of Rwandan infants (1-12 months) presenting with respiratory illnesses to urban, tertiary, pediatric hospitals and to assess the severity of respiratory distress in these infants and the treatments used. METHODS: A cross-sectional, validation study, was conducted in four tertiary hospitals in Rwanda. Infants presenting with difficulty in breathing were included. The LIBSS and ReSViNET scores were independently employed by nurses and residents to assess the severity of disease in each infant. RESULTS: 100 infants were recruited with a mean age of seven months. Infants presented with pneumonia (n = 51), bronchiolitis (n = 36) and other infectious respiratory illnesses (n = 13). Thirty-three infants had severe disease and survival was 94% using nurse applied LIBSS. Regarding inter-rater reliability, the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) for LIBSS and ReSViNET between nurses and residents was 0.985 (95% CI: 0.98-0.99) and 0.980 (0.97-0.99). The convergent validity (Pearson's correlation) between LIBSS and ReSViNET for nurses and residents was R = 0.836 (p<0.001) and R = 0.815 (p<0.001). The area under the Receiver Operator Curve (aROC) for admission to PICU or HDU was 0.956 (CI: 0.92-0.99, p<0.001) and 0.880 (CI: 0.80-0.96, p<0.001) for nurse completed LIBSS and ReSViNET respectively. CONCLUSION: LIBSS and ReSViNET were designed for infants with bronchiolitis in resource-rich settings. Both LIBSS and ReSViNET demonstrated good reliability and validity results, in this cohort of patients presenting to tertiary level hospitals. This early data demonstrate that these two scores have the potential to be used in conjunction with clinical reasoning to identify infants at increased risk of clinical deterioration and allow timely admission, treatment escalation and therefore support resource allocation in Rwanda

Community mobilization for malaria elimination: application of an open space methodology in Ruhuha sector, Rwanda

Background Despite the significant reduction of malaria transmission in Rwanda, Ruhuha sector is still a highly endemic area for malaria. The objective of this activity was to explore and brainstorm the potential roles of various community stakeholders in malaria elimination. Methods Horizontal participatory approaches such as ‘open space’ have been deployed to explore local priorities, stimulate community contribution to project planning, and to promote local capacity to manage programmes. Two open space meetings were conducted with 62 and 82 participants in years 1 and 2, respectively. Participants included purposively selected community and local organizations’ representatives. Results Malaria was perceived as a health concern by the respondents despite the reported reduction in prevalence from 60 to 20% for cases at the local health centre. Some misconceptions of the cause of malaria and misuse of preventive strategies were noted. Poverty was deemed to be a contributing factor to malaria transmission, with suggestions that improvement of living conditions for poor families might help malaria reduction. Participants expressed willingness to contribute to malaria elimination and underscored the need for constant education, sensitization and mobilization towards malaria control in general. Active diagnosis, preventative strategies and prompt treatment of malaria cases were all mentioned by participants as ways to reduce malaria. Participants suggested that partnership of stakeholders at various levels could speed up programme activities. A community rewards system was deemed important to motivate engaged participants, i.e., community health workers and households. Establishment of malaria clubs in schools settings was also suggested as crucial to speed up community awareness and increase skills towards further malaria reduction. Conclusions This bottom-up approach was found useful in engaging the local community, enabling them to explore issues related to malaria in the area and suggest solutions for sustainable malaria elimination gains

Predicting range shifts of African apes under global change scenarios

Aim: Modelling African great ape distribution has until now focused on current or past conditions, while future scenarios remain scarcely explored. Using an ensemble forecasting approach, we predicted changes in taxon-specific distribution under future scenarios of climate, land use and human populations for (1) areas outside protected areas (PAs) only (assuming complete management effectiveness of PAs), (2) the entire study region and (3) interspecies range overlap. Location: Tropical Africa. Methods: We compiled occurrence data (n = 5,203) on African apes from the IUCN A.P.E.S. database and extracted relevant climate-, habitat- and human-related predictors representing current and future (2050) conditions to predict taxon-specific range change under a best- and a worst-case scenario, using ensemble forecasting. Results The predictive performance of the models varied across taxa. Synergistic interactions between predictors are shaping African ape distribution, particularly human-related variables. On average across taxa, a range decline of 50% is expected outside PAs under the best scenario if no dispersal occurs (61% in worst scenario). Otherwise, an 85% range reduction is predicted to occur across study regions (94% worst). However, range gains are predicted outside PAs if dispersal occurs (52% best, 21% worst), with a slight increase in gains expected across study regions (66% best, 24% worst). Moreover, more than half of range losses and gains are predicted to occur outside PAs where interspecific ranges overlap. Main Conclusions: Massive range decline is expected by 2050, but range gain is uncertain as African apes will not be able to occupy these new areas immediately due to their limited dispersal capacity, migration lag and ecological constraints. Given that most future range changes are predicted outside PAs, Africa's current PA network is likely to be insufficient for preserving suitable habitats and maintaining connected ape populations. Thus, conservation planners urgently need to integrate land use planning and climate change mitigation measures at all decision-making levels both in range countries and abroad

Lipids modulate the conformational dynamics of a secondary multidrug transporter

Direct interactions with lipids have emerged as key determinants of the folding, structure and function of membrane proteins, but an understanding of how lipids modulate protein dynamics is still lacking. Here, we systematically explored the effects of lipids on the conformational dynamics of the proton-powered multidrug transporter LmrP from Lactococcus lactis, using the pattern of distances between spin-label pairs previously shown to report on alternating access of the protein. We uncovered, at the molecular level, how the lipid headgroups shape the conformational-energy landscape of the transporter. The model emerging from our data suggests a direct interaction between lipid headgroups and a conserved motif of charged residues that control the conformational equilibrium through an interplay of electrostatic interactions within the protein. Together, our data lay the foundation for a comprehensive model of secondary multidrug transport in lipid bilayers

High aboveground carbon stock of African tropical montane forests

Tropical forests store 40–50 per cent of terrestrial vegetation carbon1. However, spatial variations in aboveground live tree biomass carbon (AGC) stocks remain poorly understood, in particular in tropical montane forests2. Owing to climatic and soil changes with increasing elevation3, AGC stocks are lower in tropical montane forests compared with lowland forests2. Here we assemble and analyse a dataset of structurally intact old-growth forests (AfriMont) spanning 44 montane sites in 12 African countries. We find that montane sites in the AfriMont plot network have a mean AGC stock of 149.4 megagrams of carbon per hectare (95% confidence interval 137.1–164.2), which is comparable to lowland forests in the African Tropical Rainforest Observation Network4 and about 70 per cent and 32 per cent higher than averages from plot networks in montane2,5,6 and lowland7 forests in the Neotropics, respectively. Notably, our results are two-thirds higher than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change default values for these forests in Africa8. We find that the low stem density and high abundance of large trees of African lowland forests4 is mirrored in the montane forests sampled. This carbon store is endangered: we estimate that 0.8 million hectares of old-growth African montane forest have been lost since 2000. We provide country-specific montane forest AGC stock estimates modelled from our plot network to help to guide forest conservation and reforestation interventions. Our findings highlight the need for conserving these biodiverse9,10 and carbon-rich ecosystems

High aboveground carbon stock of African tropical montane forests

Tropical forests store 40-50 per cent of terrestrial vegetation carbon(1). However, spatial variations in aboveground live tree biomass carbon (AGC) stocks remain poorly understood, in particular in tropical montane forests(2). Owing to climatic and soil changes with increasing elevation(3), AGC stocks are lower in tropical montane forests compared with lowland forests(2). Here we assemble and analyse a dataset of structurally intact old-growth forests (AfriMont) spanning 44 montane sites in 12 African countries. We find that montane sites in the AfriMont plot network have a mean AGC stock of 149.4 megagrams of carbon per hectare (95% confidence interval 137.1-164.2), which is comparable to lowland forests in the African Tropical Rainforest Observation Network(4) and about 70 per cent and 32 per cent higher than averages from plot networks in montane(2,5,6) and lowland(7) forests in the Neotropics, respectively. Notably, our results are two-thirds higher than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change default values for these forests in Africa(8). We find that the low stem density and high abundance of large trees of African lowland forests(4) is mirrored in the montane forests sampled. This carbon store is endangered: we estimate that 0.8 million hectares of old-growth African montane forest have been lost since 2000. We provide country-specific montane forest AGC stock estimates modelled from our plot network to help to guide forest conservation and reforestation interventions. Our findings highlight the need for conserving these biodiverse(9,10) and carbon-rich ecosystems. The aboveground carbon stock of a montane African forest network is comparable to that of a lowland African forest network and two-thirds higher than default values for these montane forests.Peer reviewe

ВЭБ-мононуклеоз у детей в современных условиях

EBV-mononucleosis is a widespread infectious disease, and also it is an urgent problem of the whole world. The purpose of the research was to study the clinical and laboratory features of EBV-mononucleosis in hospitalized children of different ages in modern conditions. Under the supervision were 136 children aged from 1 year to 18 years. All of the patients had typical and mainly (85%) moderate form of the disease, and 15% of them patients had a severe form of the disease. The results: more severe fever and lymphadenopathy were observed in children older than 3 years. Acute tonsillitis was present in all hospitalized children. Adenoiditis and hepatosplenomegaly were greater in the group of patients of a younger age. Hyperfermentemia was determined in more than half of patients, more often in children over 12 years old. In the hemogram leukocytosis and monocytosis were mostly noted. Atypical blood mononuclear cells were detected in 89% of patients. Patients got complex etiopathogenetic therapy.ВЭБ-мононуклеоз является широко распространенным инфекционным заболеванием, а так же актуальной проблемой во всем мире. Цель исследования — изучить клинико-лабораторные особенности ВЭБ-мононуклеоза у госпитализированных детей различного возраста в современных условиях. Под наблюдением находились 136 детей в возрасте от 1 г. до 18 лет. У всех больных диагностирована типичная, преимущественно (85%) среднетяжелая форма заболевания, у 15% пациентов выявлена тяжелая степень болезни. Результаты: более выраженный синдром лихорадки и лимфаденопатии наблюдались у детей в возрасте старше 3 лет. Острый тонзиллит присутствовал у всех госпитализированных. Аденоидит и гепатоспленомегалия были более выраженными у пациентов младшей возрастной группы. Гиперферментемия определялась более чем у половины пациентов, чаще у детей в возрасте старше 12 лет. В гемограмме чаще всего отмечались: лейкоцитоз и моноцитоз. Атипичные мононуклеары в крови были выявлены у 89% пациентов. Пациенты получали комплексную этиопатогенетическую терапию