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417 - AIDS: in Africa, men are less responsive to treatment
November 2012
In Africa, more than 25 million people, most of them women, are currently infected by the AIDS virus. However, a study conducted by Epicentre( 1) and IRD researchers shows that men are less responsive to treatment. The provision of healthcare is intended to restore the level of lymphocyte cells, called T-CD4, reduced by HIV. Based on 13,000 patients monitored through four programmes carried out by Médecins sans frontières France in Malawi, Uganda and Kenya, the study shows that the reconstitution of these white blood cells is slower in men than in women.
Due to stigmatisation and work- and transport-related constraints, among others, men often receive healthcare at a later stage and are less responsive to treatment. However, this gender-based difference could also stem from biological causes, such as physiologically lower rates of T-CD4 lymphocytes.
This study underlines the fact that men should therefore receive special attention from programmes aimed at fighting the disease.
381 - Malaria mosquitoes putting up resistance
August 2011
After a significant fall in malaria au Sénégal depuis 2006in Africa over recent years, the disease is making a disquieting return. Les The deployment of new, highly effective treatments and distribution of 6 millions of insecticide treated bednets( 1) have helped check this terrible disease’s progress. However, scientists from the IRD and their research partners( 2) have observed a new leap in the number of cases since the end of 2010 in the village of Dielmo, centre du paysSenegal. Two parallel effects coincide: a reduction in immune protection( 3) in the population and the emergence of resistance in the mosquito vector, Anopheles gambiae . The work, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases , shows that in 2010, nearly 40% of these mosquitoes had become resistant to deltamethrin( 4), the insecticide used for impregnating the protective nets.
Recent successes have given a glimpse of the possibility of eliminating the pandemic in Africa. But the emergence of Anopheles resistance probably pushes back any hope of eradicating the disease for a long timele recul de la pandémie, l’émergence de résistances – soit aux traitements chez le parasite, soit aux répulsifs chez le moustique vecteur – repousse l’espoir d’une éradication. This investigation highlights the urgency for developing a vaccine against malaria infection, which still kills about one million people every year, most of them in Africa.
374 - Snakebites a public health problem in Africa
May 2011
One and a half million people per year are poisoned by snake venom in Sub-Saharan Africa. An IRD researcher recently analysed around 100 surveys and medical reports published over the past 40 years. No large-scale study of the situation had hitherto been conducted and public health authorities had underestimated the size of the problem. This means that currently only 10% of victims are treated, owing to a shortage of antivenoms * and lack of awareness among health care practitioners. Yet the clinical complications can be very serious, even fatal. A bite from a cobra or mamba can bring on death by asphyxia –due to respiratory paralysis– within 6h after the incident. Venom injected by the ocellated carpet viper, common in the African savannah, can cause haemorrhages leading to the victim’s death in a few days.
This new study provides authorities with more detailed and reliable figures which should enable them to readjust their health-care services in better tune with needs.
Sleeping sickness: tsetse flies counterattack in urban areas
June 2009
Whipple disease: an emerging infection in Africa?
May 2009
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