Médecine tropicale : revue du Corps de santé colonial
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Despite extensive national and international intervention, little progress has been made in controlling, malaria and other communicable diseases afflicting many developing countries in the world. In response to the need to pursue and enhance investigation, the French Ministry of Research launched the PAL+ program in 1999 with the purpose of promoting concerted "research on malaria and other communicable diseases afflicting developing countries". The program is focused on developing methods of prevention and treatment for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. ⋯ The exceptionally instructive impact of these workshops has proven to be an essential element in the overall PAL+ program that has greatly stimulated malaria research. This program has been successful in creating a new spirit of intervention and has provided a rarely equalled vehicle for collaboration. By bringing the whole research community together over the major research programs now under way in the North/South networks, the PAL+ program represents a new and decisive step in achieving the long-sought goal of meaningful scientific cooperation between northern and southern hemisphere countries in the domain of public health.
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French Guiana is a French Overseas Department in South America. Ninety-five percent of the territory is a tropical rainforest. Its rich fauna includes seven families of snakes but only 3 are potentially venomous. ⋯ Crotalus durissus, a rattlesnake living in coastal savannah, or Micrurus sp cause neuromuscular poisoning. Coral snakes are encountered throughout French Guiana, but envenomation is very rare. Antivenom therapy must be administered by the intravenous route in association with symptomatic treatment and, if necessary, resuscitation in a specialized care unit.
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Governmental humanitarian action is an old concept in France, that is a topic of current interest. To conduct humanitarian action, the French government has deployed various facilities. The military biological risk team was established to control epidemics, provide expertise during epidemiological emergencies, and conduct mass vaccination programs. The author describe the missions carried out by the biological risk team during the 1990s as an illustration of governmental humanitarian action.
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Epidemiological data from the French National Reference Center for Imported Diseases showed that the estimated number of cases of imported malaria in France increased from 5,940 in 1998 to 7,127 in 1999 and 8,056 in 2000. This three-year progression ended in 2001 when the number of estimated cases fell back to 7,223. It was due mainly to the concomitant increase in the number of people traveling to endemic zones especially in Africa. ⋯ Less than 10% of the 45% of patients claiming use of prophylaxis complied properly. Analysis of the drugs used for curative treatment in 2000 showed an increase in the use of quinine and mefloquine and decrease in the use of halofantrine. The main objectives remain reduction of mortality and improvement of prevention.