Neglected Diseases in the News: A Content Analysis of Recent International Media Coverage Focussing on Leishmaniasis and Trypanosomiasis

In recent years, there has been a flurry of activity to reverse the neglect that has characterised NTDs, mostly focussed on drug development. The drug gap may be explained by market failure, yet other forces also conspire to cause the neglect of NTDs. One problem is the low visibility of these diseases. By comparison, the high-profile “big three” infectious diseases of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria have received increased donor attention and funding with greater visibility. Efforts to remove the “neglect” from NTDs must involve raising their profile. This study, focussing on three of the most neglected diseases, aims to provide a context of the current media situation—the what, where, and why of NTD coverage—to support future advocacy work

Ulcère de Buruli chez un voyageur français au Sénégal

L’ulcère de Buruli (UB) est une infection endémique du tissu sous-cutané causée par Mycobacterium ulcerans, un agent pathogène environnemental. C’est une affection émergente caractérisée par la nécrose du tissu sous-cutané aboutissant à un ulcère chronique, d’extension progressive et qui reste indolore. La maladie a un impact socio-économique majeur dans les populations des pays concernés par l’endémie. L’ulcère de Buruli est présent à l’état endémique dans 17 pays et des cas isolés ont été rapportés dans 10 autres pays. A ce jour, peu de cas ont été rapportés chez le voyageur. Nous relatons ici un cas d’ulcère de Buruli, confirmé par la détection de matériel génétique de M. ulcerans, chez un voyageur ayant contracté l’infection au Sénégal, pays dans lequel aucun cas d’ulcère de Buruli n’a jusqu’alors été rapporté

Evaluation of the diagnostic accuracy of prototype rapid tests for human African trypanosomiasis

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The antigen presenting potential of Vγ9Vδ2 T-cells during Plasmodium falciparum blood-stage infection.

During Plasmodium falciparum infections, erythrocyte-stage parasites inhibit dendritic cell maturation and function; compromising development of effective anti-malarial adaptive immunity. Human Vγ9Vδ2 T-cells can act in vitro as APCs and induce αβ T-cell activation. However, the relevance of this activity in pathophysiological contexts in vivo has remained elusive. Since Vγ9Vδ2 T-cells are activated during the early immune response against P.falciparum infection, we investigated whether they could contribute to the instruction of adaptive immune responses toward malaria parasites. In P.falciparum-infected patients,Vγ9Vδ2 T-cells presented an increased surface expression of APC-associated markers HLA-DR and CD86. In response to infected red blood cells in vitro, Vγ9Vδ2 T-cells readily up-regulated surface expression of HLA-DR, HLA-ABC, CD40, CD80, CD83 and CD86, induced naive αβ T-cell responses, and cross-presented soluble prototypical protein to antigen-specific CD8+ T-cells. Our findings indicate that P. falciparum parasites induce genuine APC properties in Vγ9Vδ2 T-cells and qualify this subset as an alternative professional APC in malaria patients, which could be harnessed for therapeutic interventions and vaccine design

Metabolomics Study of Urine in Autism Spectrum Disorders Using a Multiplatform Analytical Methodology

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with no clinical biomarker. Aims of this study were to characterize a metabolic signature of ASD, and to evaluate multi-platform analytical methodologies in order to develop predictive tools for diagnosis and disease follow up. Urines were analyzed using: 1H- and 1 H-13C-NMR-based approaches and LC-HRMS-based approaches (ESI+ and ESI- on a HILIC and C18 chromatography column). Data tables obtained from the six analytical modalities on a training set of 46 urines (22 autistic children and 24 controls) were processed by multivariate analysis (OPLS-DA). Prediction of each of these OPLS-DA models were then evaluated using a prediction set of 16 samples (8 autistic children and 8 controls) and ROC curves. Thereafter, a data fusion block-scaling OPLS-DA model was generated from the 6 best models obtained for each modality. This fused OPLSDA model showed an enhanced performance (R 2Y(cum)=0.88, Q 2 (cum)=0.75) compared to each analytical modality model, as well as a better predictive capacity (AUC=0.91, p-value 0.006). Metabolites that are most significantly different between autistic and control children (p<0.05) are indoxyl sulfate, N-\u2329-Acetyl-L-arginine, methyl guanidine and phenylacetylglutamine. This multi-modality approach has the potential to contribute to find robust biomarkers and characterize a metabolic phenotype of the ASD population

Incorporating scale dependence in disease burden estimates:the case of human African trypanosomiasis in Uganda

The WHO has established the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) as a metric for measuring the burden of human disease and injury globally. However, most DALY estimates have been calculated as national totals. We mapped spatial variation in the burden of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) in Uganda for the years 2000-2009. This represents the first geographically delimited estimation of HAT disease burden at the sub-country scale.Disability-adjusted life-year (DALY) totals for HAT were estimated based on modelled age and mortality distributions, mapped using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, and summarised by parish and district. While the national total burden of HAT is low relative to other conditions, high-impact districts in Uganda had DALY rates comparable to the national burden rates for major infectious diseases. The calculated average national DALY rate for 2000-2009 was 486.3 DALYs/100 000 persons/year, whereas three districts afflicted by rhodesiense HAT in southeastern Uganda had burden rates above 5000 DALYs/100 000 persons/year, comparable to national GBD 2004 average burden rates for malaria and HIV/AIDS.These results provide updated and improved estimates of HAT burden across Uganda, taking into account sensitivity to under-reporting. Our results highlight the critical importance of spatial scale in disease burden analyses. National aggregations of disease burden have resulted in an implied bias against highly focal diseases for which geographically targeted interventions may be feasible and cost-effective. This has significant implications for the use of DALY estimates to prioritize disease interventions and inform cost-benefit analyses

Arboviral and other illnesses in travellers returning from Brazil, june 2013 to may 2016: Implications for the 2016 olympic and paralympic games

We evaluated EuroTravNet (a GeoSentinel subnetwork) data from June 2013 to May 2016 on 508 ill travellers returning from Brazil, to inform a risk analysis for Europeans visiting the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Brazil. Few dengue fever cases (n = 3) and no cases of chikungunya were documented during the 2013-15 Brazilian winter months, August and September, the period when the Games will be held. The main diagnoses were dermatological (37%), gastrointestinal (30%), febrile systemic illness (29%) and respiratory (11%)

Epidemiology and clinical features of vivax malaria imported to Europe: Sentinel surveillance data from TropNetEurop

BACKGROUND: Plasmodium vivax is the second most common species among malaria patients diagnosed in Europe, but epidemiological and clinical data on imported P. vivax malaria are limited. The TropNetEurop surveillance network has monitored the importation of vivax malaria into Europe since 1999. OBJECTIVES: To present epidemiological and clinical data on imported P. vivax malaria collected at European level. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data of primary cases of P. vivax malaria reported between January 1999 and September 2003 were analysed, focusing on disease frequency, patient characteristics, place of infection, course of disease, treatment and differences between network-member countries. RESULTS: Within the surveillance period 4,801 cases of imported malaria were reported. 618 (12.9%) were attributed to P. vivax. European travellers and immigrants were the largest patient groups, but their proportion varied among the reporting countries. The main regions of infection in descending order were the Indian subcontinent, Indonesia, South America and Western and Eastern Africa, as a group accounting for more than 60% of the cases. Regular use of malaria chemoprophylaxis was reported by 118 patients. With 86 (inter-quartile range 41–158) versus 31 days (inter-quartile range 4–133) the median symptom onset was significantly delayed in patients with chemoprophylaxis (p < 0.0001). Common complaints were fever, headache, fatigue, and musculo-skeletal symptoms. All patients survived and severe clinical complications were rare. Hospitalization was provided for 60% and primaquine treatment administered to 83.8% of the patients, but frequencies varied strongly among reporting countries. CONCLUSIONS: TropNetEurop data can contribute to the harmonization of European treatment policies