Profil épidémiologique de la Tuberculose, Sénégal, 2009-2018: Epidemiological profile of Tuberculosis, Senegal, 2009-2018

Introduction: Le fardeau de la tuberculose (TB) pose un grave problème de santé publique au Sénégal. Nous avons analysé les données de surveillance de la tuberculose pour décrire le poids et la tendance de la tuberculose au Sénégal. Méthodes: Nous avons effectué une analyse secondaire des données de surveillance de la tuberculose du 1er janvier 2009 au 31 décembre 2018 du programme national de lutte contre la tuberculose (PNT). Résultats: Au total, 128 836 cas de tuberculose toutes formes ont été analysées dont 67,42% de nouveaux cas de TB pulmonaire confirmée par microscopie. Les personnes âgées de 25-34 ans représentaient 29,66%. Le sex-ratio H/F était de 2,33. Dakar avait rapporté la plupart des cas 44,17%. L'incidence pour 100 000 habitants était de 91, 87 et 86 en 2009, 2008 et 2011, de 93, 95 et 95 en 2012, 2013 et 2014 et de 92, 86, 87 et 84 en 2015, 2016, 2017 et 2018. La majorité des cas (77%) avaient été testés pour le VIH, dont 6,84% co-infectés. Le taux de TB multirésistante (TB-MR) était de 11%. Conclusion: Au Sénégal, l'incidence de la tuberculose a légèrement diminué en raison du faible taux de détection qui était de 62% en 2018. Le nombre de cas détecté a augmenté entre 2013 et 2014, mais elle restait inférieure à celle estimée par l'organisation mondiale de la santé. Une surveillance accrue de la tuberculose et un suivi des tuberculeux pour éviter la pharmaco-résistance sont nécessaires. Introduction: The burden of tuberculosis (TB) is a serious public health problem in Senegal. We analysed TB surveillance data to describe the burden and trend of TB in Senegal. Method: We conducted a secondary analysis of TB surveillance data from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2018 from the national TB control programme (NTP). Results: A total of 128,836 cases of all forms of tuberculosis were analysed, of which 67.42% were new cases of microscopically confirmed pulmonary TB. Persons aged 25-34 years accounted for 29.66%. The sex ratio M/F was 2.33. Dakar reported most cases 44.17%. The incidence per 100 000 populations was 91, 87 and 86 in 2009, 2008 and 2011, 93, 95 and 95 in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and 92, 86, 87 and 84 in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. The majority of cases (77%) had tested positive for HIV, with 6.84% co-infected. The rate of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) was 11%. Conclusion: In Senegal, the incidence of TB has slightly decreased due to the low detection rate which was 62% in 2018. The number of detected cases increased between 2013 and 2014, but it remained below that estimated by the World Health Organization. Increased surveillance of TB and monitoring of TB patients to avoid drug resistance is needed. &nbsp

Socializing One Health: an innovative strategy to investigate social and behavioral risks of emerging viral threats

In an effort to strengthen global capacity to prevent, detect, and control infectious diseases in animals and people, the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) PREDICT project funded development of regional, national, and local One Health capacities for early disease detection, rapid response, disease control, and risk reduction. From the outset, the EPT approach was inclusive of social science research methods designed to understand the contexts and behaviors of communities living and working at human-animal-environment interfaces considered high-risk for virus emergence. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, PREDICT behavioral research aimed to identify and assess a range of socio-cultural behaviors that could be influential in zoonotic disease emergence, amplification, and transmission. This broad approach to behavioral risk characterization enabled us to identify and characterize human activities that could be linked to the transmission dynamics of new and emerging viruses. This paper provides a discussion of implementation of a social science approach within a zoonotic surveillance framework. We conducted in-depth ethnographic interviews and focus groups to better understand the individual- and community-level knowledge, attitudes, and practices that potentially put participants at risk for zoonotic disease transmission from the animals they live and work with, across 6 interface domains. When we asked highly-exposed individuals (ie. bushmeat hunters, wildlife or guano farmers) about the risk they perceived in their occupational activities, most did not perceive it to be risky, whether because it was normalized by years (or generations) of doing such an activity, or due to lack of information about potential risks. Integrating the social sciences allows investigations of the specific human activities that are hypothesized to drive disease emergence, amplification, and transmission, in order to better substantiate behavioral disease drivers, along with the social dimensions of infection and transmission dynamics. Understanding these dynamics is critical to achieving health security--the protection from threats to health-- which requires investments in both collective and individual health security. Involving behavioral sciences into zoonotic disease surveillance allowed us to push toward fuller community integration and engagement and toward dialogue and implementation of recommendations for disease prevention and improved health security

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Atlas cartographiques du droit de l’environnement marin en Afrique de l’Ouest. Méthodologie et usage pour la planification spatiale

International audienceEn mer, le droit positif génère de multiples zones et limites réglementaires qui se superposent dans l’espace, justifiant une représentation cartographique comme approche pertinente pour en favoriser l’appréhension (vision synthétique), l’analyse (mise en évidence d’anomalies, d’incohérences et de redondances juridiques), la diffusion et la communication auprès de différents publics (sensibilisation). L’article présente une méthodologie conduisant à la représentation cartographique du droit de l’environnement marin et côtier en Afrique de l’Ouest, exploitant une base d’information géographique permettant de produire des représentationscartographiques de manière statique ou interactive via une Infrastructure de DonnéesGéographiques (IDG). Il montre l’apport de ce type de cartographies pour contribuer à une approche transversale dans un contexte multi-activités, multi-sectoriels et multi-échelles. Une série d’entretiens avec des acteurs sénégalais, dont principalement des services de l’État, est réalisée de manière à évaluer les pratiques, les attentes et les limites de cet atlas du droit de l’environnement marin. Même si son usage reste actuellement limité, l’intérêt de l’atlas est souligné par les acteurs qui font face à des enjeux croissants (préservation des ressources et de la biodiversité, développement de nouvelles activités, conflits d’usages…) et qui se doivent d’initier un processus de planification de l’espace marin. Des recommandations peuvent désormais êtreproposées afin de favoriser l’usage des atlas du droit de l’environnement pour aider à la mise en œuvre d’une stratégie opérationnelle de gestion intégrée de la mer et du littoral

Novel repertoire of tau biosensors to monitor pathological tau transformation and seeding activity in living cells

Aggregates of the tau protein are a well-known hallmark of several neurodegenerative diseases, collectively referred to as tauopathies, including frontal temporal dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Monitoring the transformation process of tau from physiological monomers into pathological oligomers or aggregates in a high-throughput, quantitative manner and in a cellular context is still a major challenge in the field. Identifying molecules able to interfere with those processes is of high therapeutic interest. Here, we developed a series of inter- and intramolecular tau biosensors based on the highly sensitive Nanoluciferase (Nluc) binary technology (NanoBiT) able to monitor the pathological conformational change and self-interaction of tau in living cells. Our repertoire of tau biosensors reliably reports i. molecular proximity of physiological full-length tau at microtubules; ii. changes in tau conformation and self-interaction associated with tau phosphorylation, as well as iii. tau interaction induced by seeds of recombinant tau or from mouse brain lysates of a mouse model of tau pathology. By comparing biosensors comprising different tau forms (i.e. full-length or short fragments, wild-type, or the disease-associated tau(P301L) variant) further insights into the tau transformation process are obtained. Proof-of-concept data for the high-throughput suitability and identification of molecules interfering with the pathological tau transformation processes are presented. This novel repertoire of tau biosensors is aimed to boost the disclosure of molecular mechanisms underlying pathological tau transformation in living cells and to discover new drug candidates for tau-related neurodegenerative diseases

Novel repertoire of tau biosensors to monitor pathological tau transformation and seeding activity in living cells

ABSTRACT Aggregates of the tau protein are a well-known hallmark of several neurodegenerative diseases, collectively referred as tauopathies, including Frontal Temporal Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Monitoring the transformation process of tau from physiological monomers into pathological oligomers or aggregates in a high-throughput, quantitative manner and in a cellular context is still a major challenge in the field. Identifying molecules able to interfere with those processes is of high therapeutic interest. Here, we developed a series of inter- and intramolecular tau biosensors based on the highly sensitive Nanoluciferase (Nluc) binary technology (NanoBiT) able to monitor the pathological conformational change and self-interaction of tau in living cells. Our repertoire of tau biosensors reliably report i . molecular proximity of physiological full-length tau at microtubules; ii . changes in tau conformation and self-interaction associated with tau phosphorylation, as well as iii . tau interaction induced by seeds of recombinant tau or from brain lysates of a mouse model of tau pathology. By comparing biosensors comprising different tau forms ( i . e . full-length or short fragments, wild-type or the disease-associated tau(P301L) variant) further insights in the tau transformation process are obtained. Proof-of-concept data for the high-throughput suitability and identification of molecules interfering with the pathological tau transformation processes are presented. This novel repertoire of tau biosensors are aimed to boost the disclosure of molecular mechanisms underlying pathological tau transformation in living cells and to discover new drug candidates for tau-related neurodegenerative diseases

Effect of anakinra versus usual care in adults in hospital with COVID-19 and mild-to-moderate pneumonia (CORIMUNO-ANA-1): a randomised controlled trial

International audienc