Comparison of two competitive ELISAs for the detection of specific peste-des-petits-ruminant antibodies in sheep and cattle populations

Peste-des-petits-ruminant (PPR) continues to be a major problem of small ruminants in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The closely related paramyxovirus causing rinderpest (RP) has been largely eradicated by a global vaccination campaign. However, PPR screening of large populations has lacked a sufficiently reliable, fast and cheap screening test. This study compares two commercially available PPR antibodies ELISA kits using serum collected from experimental sheep and cattle populations with four different vaccination histories for RP and PPR. The aim was to estimate the levels of cross-reaction between antibodies to the two diseases for each kit and their test parameters in the different populations. There was considerable variation between kits and between the different vaccination groups. There was a clear problem of cross-reaction in both PPR kits with RP positive sera. However, in areas where RP has been eradicated and vaccination stopped both tests could be useful for screening small ruminants for PPR

Researching the delivery of health and nutrition interventions for women and children in the context of armed conflict: Lessons on research challenges and strategies from BRANCH Consortium case studies of Somalia, Mali, Pakistan and Afghanistan

Background: The BRANCH Consortium recently conducted 10 mixed-methods case studies to investigate the provision of health and nutrition interventions for women and children in conflict-affected countries, aiming to better understand the dominant influences on humanitarian health actors\u27 programmatic decision-making and how such actors surmount intervention delivery barriers. In this paper, the research challenges encountered and the mitigating strategies employed by the case study investigators in four of the BRANCH case study contexts are discussed: Somalia, Mali, Pakistan and Afghanistan.Discussion: Many of the encountered research challenges were anticipated, with investigators adopting mitigation strategies in advance or early on, but others were unexpected, with implications for how studies were ultimately conducted and how well the original study aims were met. Insecurity was a fundamental challenge in all study contexts, with restricted geographical access and concerns for personal safety affecting sampling and data collection plans, and requiring reliance on digital communications, remote study management, and off-site team meetings wherever possible. The need to navigate complex local sociopolitical contexts required maximum reliance on local partners\u27 knowledge, expertise and networks, and this was facilitated by early engagement with a wide range of local study stakeholders. Severe lack of reliable quantitative data on intervention coverage affected the extent to which information from different sources could be triangulated or integrated to inform an understanding of the influences on humanitarian actors\u27 decision-making.Conclusion: Strong local partners are essential to the success of any project, contributing not only technical and methodological capacity but also the insight needed to truly understand and interpret local dynamics for the wider study team and to navigate those dynamics to ensure study rigour and relevance. Maintaining realistic expectations of data that are typically available in conflict settings is also essential, while pushing for more resources and further methodological innovation to improve data collection in such settings. Finally, successful health research in the complex, dynamic and unpredictable contexts of conflict settings requires flexibility and adaptability of researchers, as well as sponsors and donors

Further Confirmation of Broadly Conserved, Highly Immunogenic Cross-Clade HIV CTL Epitopes for Inclusion in the GAIA HIV Vaccine

Poster Presentation From AIDS Vaccine 2012 Boston, MA, USA. 9-12 September 201

Evaluating Short-Term Patient Outcomes after HIV Care Interventions in a Low Resource Setting: Preparing for an HIV Vaccine Trial Site in Bamako, Mali

Poster Presentation From AIDS Vaccine 2012 Boston, MA, USA. 9-12 September 201

Epidémiologie de la peste des petits ruminants (PPR) et de la peste bovine au Mali : enquêtes sérologiques

Dans le cadre de l'épidémiosurveillance de la peste bovine au Mali, une enquête sérologique a été conduite dans 58 troupeaux de petits ruminants. Sur 567 sérums analysés pour la détection des anticorps anti-peste bovine, deux seulement se sont révélés positifs. Ils proviennent de deux animaux âgés de plus de 6 ans et donc probablement contaminés lors de la dernière épidémie de peste bovine survenue en 1986. Il est probable que le virus bovipestique ne circule plus au Mali depuis cette date. En revanche, l'infection des chèvres et des moutons avec le virus de la peste des petits ruminants semble être importante : 74 % des troupeaux ont déjà été contaminés. La prévalence de l'infection individuelle est de 32 %. Une enquête sérologique similaire conduite chez 450 bovins dépourvus d'anticorps anti-peste bovine a montré que 1,78 % de ces animaux a été en contact avec le virus PPR. Avec un taux si faible d'infection de bovins, le virus PPR n'a probablement pas d'incidence sur l'épidémiologie de la peste bovine au Mali

Knowledge/Attitude/Practices of HPV & Cervical Cancer, Willingness to Participate in Vaccine Trial in Preparation for HIV & HPV Vaccine Trials in Mali

Oral Presentation from AIDS Vaccine 2012 Boston, MA, USA. 9-12 September 201

A Decade of Partnering to Stop HIV in West Africa: GAIA VF Prevention, Education, Access to Care and Vaccine Trial Site Development in Bamako, Mali

Poster Presentation from AIDS Vaccine 2012 Boston, MA, USA. 9-12 September 201