Village Baseline Study: Site Analysis Report for Yatenga – Tougou, Burkina Faso

The village baseline study of Kononga village in the CCAFS site Yatenga-Tougou in Burkina Faso took place from 19th to 21st July 2011. Focus group discussions were conducted separately for men and women. Male and female participants believe that the natural resources in the village are deteriorating due to population increase and labour shortages related to the exodus of young people to gold mining sites. The village’s vision of the future includes more productive and fertile farmland, a denser forest, deeper and wider water reservoirs, and more boreholes. The men identified 21 organisations in the village, including 9 operating at the community level, while women identified 17 organisations, 10 of which operate at the community level. Men are considered the most important personal source of information in the village. The regional directorate for agriculture, hydrology and fishery resources (DRAHRA) is the single most relevant institutional source of climate and weather information for both male and female participants. Men and women gather information from outside the village via radio broadcasting and particularly Radio “Voix du paysan” (Voice of the Farmer). The market is the most important channel of information access for women. Women have a substantial role in agriculture and livestock production, as well as natural resource management but they have limited access to land or to improved technology or equipment, and few training opportunities

Profil sociodémographique et anatomoclinique du psoriasis en milieu hospitalier et tropical à Ouagadougou

Le psoriasis est une dermatose inflammatoire érythémato-squameuse, d’évolution chronique. Ses aspects sociodémographiques et ses variantes cliniques sont peu connus en Afrique de l’ouest. Il s’est agit d’une étude rétrospective et prospective menée du 1er janvier 2009 au 30 juin 2012. Tous les patients qui avaient un dossier exploitable étaient inclus. Nous avons recensé 94 cas de psoriasis sur 14952 consultants, soit une prévalence hospitalière de 0,62%. Mais 84 cas répondaient aux critères d’inclusion. L’âge moyen des patients était de 34,53 ans, le sex-ratio de 1,47. Les ménagères, les élèves et les fonctionnaires étaient les plus représentés. Le prurit était retrouvé dans 54,8% des cas. Les lésions élémentaires cutanées étaient surtout érythémato-squameuses (79 cas). Celles unguéales étaient surtout à type de dépression cupuliforme (8 cas). Le cuir chevelu, les coudes et les genoux étaient les zones bastions les plus touchées (respectivement 53,57%, 45,23%, et 40,47%). Le psoriasis était vulgaire dans 30 cas et grave dans 7 cas. L’examen histopathologique était réalisé chez 11 patients. Malgré certaines insuffisances de description qui ne nous ont pas permis de calculer le score de PASI, cette étude a atteint ses objectifs. Les particularités de cette série étaient la prédominance masculine, la prévalence élevée du prurit et l’atteinte élevée du cuir chevelu. Les formes graves de psoriasis doivent faire rechercher une association à l’infection à VIH. Une étude en population permettrait de déterminer avec exactitude la prévalence du psoriasis au Burkina Faso.Pan African Medical Journal 2016; 23:11

Résumé des résultats des enquêtes de base niveau ménage : site de Tougou, Burkina Faso

Ce rapport présente les résultats des enquêtes de base conduites au niveau des ménages de sept (7) villages du site de Tougou (Burkina Faso) dans le cadre du programme de recherche du CGIAR sur le Changement Climatique, l’Agriculture et la Sécurité Alimentaire. L’objectif de ces enquêtes était de de collecter toutes les données et informations sur des indicateurs clés de base concernant les ménages notamment les moyens de subsistance, l’agriculture et la gestion des ressources naturelles, les besoins d’information sur le climat et la gestion des risques, et les pratiques d’atténuation et d’adaptation

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

Seasonal forecasts in the Sahel region: the use of rainfall-based predictive variables

In the Sahel region, seasonal predictions are crucial to alleviate the impacts of climate variability on populations' livelihoods. Agricultural planning (e.g., decisions about sowing date, fertilizer application date, and choice of crop or cultivar) is based on empirical predictive indices whose accuracy to date has not been scientifically proven. This paper attempts to statistically test whether the pattern of rainfall distribution over the May–July period contributes to predicting the real onset date and the nature (wet or dry) of the rainy season, as farmers believe. To that end, we considered historical records of daily rainfall from 51 stations spanning the period 1920–2008 and the different agro-climatic zones in Burkina Faso. We performed (1) principal component analysis to identify climatic zones, based on the patterns of intra-seasonal rainfall, (2) and linear discriminant analysis to find the best rainfall-based variables to distinguish between real and false onset dates of the rainy season, and between wet and dry seasons in each climatic zone. A total of nine climatic zones were identified in each of which, based on rainfall records from May to July, we derived linear discriminant functions to correctly predict the nature of a potential onset date of the rainy season (real or false) and that of the rainy season (dry or wet) in at least three cases out of five. These functions should contribute to alleviating the negative impacts of climate variability in the different climatic zones of Burkina Faso

Changes in seasonal descriptors of precipitation in Burkina Faso associated with late 20th century drought and recovery in West Africa

Daily rainfall records of 39 stations spanning the different agro climatic zones of Burkina Faso were analyzed to describe the evolution of five seasonal rainfall descriptors over time. The period from1941 to 2000, including the two most contrasted periods in the recent history of the Sahelian climate, i.e. the wet decades (1941 1970) and the dry decades (1971 2000), were considered. It was found that certain seasonal descriptors namely total seasonal rainfall, number of rain-days and cessation dates of the rainy season when aggregated into annual and national means manifested almost the same evolution pattern; while others, notably average rainfall per rain-day and onset date of the growing period, showed different patterns of evolution. It was concluded that the recent reduction in seasonal precipitation amount was related to a reduced number of rain-days in August and September, with precocious cessation of the rainy season as a consequence. However, all the seasonal descriptors showed recovery trends since the end of the 1980s, with the mean rainfall per rain-day, exhibiting the steadiest trend. But, the descriptors were more volatile during that recovery time according to the upward trends in their interannual variability. Importantly, the links between the seasonal descriptors and two sea surface temperature indexes were discussed in light of climate change impacts on rain-fed agriculture, the main source of food for the population of Burkina Faso. The results should be incorporated in alleviation strategies of climate change impacts in the Sahel region

La manucure et la pédicure dans la ville de Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso): pratiques et risques

La manucure-pédicure est l'ensemble des soins esthétiques des mains, des pieds et des ongles. Au Burkina Faso, l’usage des produits de manucure-pédicure, les techniques utilisées ainsi que les risques encourus restent méconnus. L’objectif de notre étude était d’évaluer la pratique de la manucure-pédicure dans la ville de Ouagadougou. Nous avons mené une étude transversale descriptive de décembre 2010 à novembre 2012 incluant tout les praticiens ayant au moins six mois d’expérience dans l’activité et les clients présents sur les lieux au moment de l’enquête. Nous avons interrogé au total 313 praticiens et 313 clients. L’âge moyen des praticiens était de 19 ans et celui des clients de 32,2 ans. Les praticiens fixes étaient en majorité des femmes (96,87%), ceux mobiles surtout des hommes (68,37%), et 64,53% des clients étaient des femmes. Le pourcentage de praticiens n’ayant pas reçu de formation professionnelle était de 93,92%. 29,7% des praticiens faisaient tremper les instruments pendant au moins dix minutes dans de l’eau de javel ; 75,71% savaient que l’utilisation de certains outils étaient dangereux et 26,51% étaient avaient présenté des effets secondaires. Parmi les clients, 40,25% savaient que le matériel utilisé comportait des risques et 30,35% avaient été victimes d’accidents. Les soins de manucure et de pédicure se font dans les salons de coiffure par des coiffeuses non formées à l’exercice de la profession La provenance et la composition des produits n’est pas connues. Des produits non recommandés sont utilisés (shampooing pour trempage des pieds, lame de rasoir et ciseaux pour raclage des pieds). Le recours à la manucure et/ou pédicure est parfois nécessaire mais cela ne doit pas faire perdre de vue les risques encourus. Une sensibilisation des clients et une formation des praticiens semblent nécessaires pour minimiser les risques.The Pan African Medical Journal 2016;2