Bulletin de la Société de pathologie exotique (1990)
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In tropical zones, snakebites are considered serious. Exotic snakes are characterised by the poisonousness of their venom and its abundance. Death is rapid in some cases and in others the sequelae are serious. ⋯ Snakebites occurred during the daytime (93%), in the fields in 20 cases (75%) or in the home courtyard (25%). The victims lived in town in 25 cases (93%). Antivenom was used in all envenomation cases, and the result was favourable in 23 cases (18%) but unfavourable in 4 (15%).
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Bull Soc Pathol Exot · Jun 2002
[Knowledge, attitude and practices of health personnel with regard to HIV/AIDS in Tamatave (Madagascar)].
Health care workers are key players in the prevention and management of HIV-infection. We surveyed HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes and practices of health care workers in Tamatave (Madagascar), to assess the feasibility of voluntary counselling and testing for HIV infection in antenatal care. ⋯ Our study revealed gaps in the knowledge of health care workers about HIV infection. Before implementing voluntary counselling and testing in antenatal care, additional HIV/AIDS training for health staff seems necessary.
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Bull Soc Pathol Exot · Mar 2002
Review[Critical review of control strategies for meningococcal meningitis epidemics in Sub-Saharan Africa].
Strategies for controlling meningitis epidemics in Sub-Saharan countries, although regularly re-examined, are based on epidemiological, immunological and logistical considerations dating from the 1970s. The strategy recommended by WHO consists in organising large-scale vaccinations in the event of declared epidemic. However, the obvious failure of this strategy has meant that a review and evaluation of the emergency vaccination criteria is necessary. ⋯ Routine--or preventive--vaccination could significantly reduce the incidence of meningococcal meningitis as well as its severity. The conjugate vaccine, when available, will constitute an additional advantage in the prevention of meningococcal meningitis. The organisation of a strategy combining both polysaccharide and conjugate vaccines according to the population targets and possibilities of funding remains to be defined.
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We have carried out a meticulous time-space-analysis of the incidence of yellow fever in humans in Brazil from 1954 to 1972 and especially from 1973 to 1999. This study has added to our knowledge of the epidemiology of yellow fever and enabled us to redefine epidemiological zones and determine their geographical limits. The endemic area is located within the Amazon basin; here cases are scattered and generally limited in number. ⋯ Since the discovery of the sylvatic cycle of yellow fever in 1933, not only the extent of the epidemiological areas has changed, but also their limits. Ecological modifications that are currently taking place in the Amazon basin, which is an endemic reservoir of the virus, will inevitably facilitate an increase the contact between humans and vectors. While more and more urban areas harbour populations of Aedes aegypti, the domestic and urban vector of yellow fever, it is particularly important to try to protect human populations living in emergence zones and epidemic areas and thus to prevent the arrival of the virus in towns via humans with viremia--in other words the much feared urbanisation of yellow fever in Brazil.