22 research outputs found
Prof. Thomas F. DeFrantz on Dancing a Black Social – an interview
No full textProf. Thomas DeFrantz on Dancing a Black Social and Re-Orientations, sharing insights from his prolific research into Black American dance past, present and future. Molloy interviewed the Professor on the 9th of May 2024, in person at SLIPPAGE lab, Northwestern University, Illinois, USA.Intro/outro music : drum-dance jam at the market stall of Burkinabe instrument-maker Issaka Compaore at the annual Africlap street festival August 2024, Toulouse, France.Interview and recordings by the author on a Zoom H1N field mic. Photography, editing and audio production by the author. Research-creation / fieldwork conducted in partial completion of a PhD at University College Cork and University of Toulouse, with the support of an ERASMUS+ mobility grant and the UCC Danijela Kulezic-Wilson scholarship.Prof. Thomas DeFrantz on Dancing a Black Social and Re-Orientations, sharing insights from his prolific research into Black American dance past, present and future. Molloy interviewed the Professor on the 9th of May 2024, in person at SLIPPAGE lab, Northwestern University, Illinois, USA.Intro/outro music : drum-dance jam at the market stall of Burkinabe instrument-maker Issaka Compaore at the annual Africlap street festival August 2024, Toulouse, France.Interview and recordings by the author on a Zoom H1N field mic. Photography, editing and audio production by the author. Research-creation / fieldwork conducted in partial completion of a PhD at University College Cork and University of Toulouse, with the support of an ERASMUS+ mobility grant and the UCC Danijela Kulezic-Wilson scholarship
Mapping energy balance fluxes and root zone soil moisture in the White Volta Basin using optical imagery
No full textAccurate information on the distribution of sensible and latent heat fluxes as well as soil moisture is critical for evaluation of background characteristics. Since these fluxes are subject to rapid changes in time and space, it is nearly impossible to determine their spatial and temporal distributions over large areas from ground measurements alone. Therefore, prediction from remote sensing images is very attractive as it enables extensive area coverage and a high repetition rate. In this study, the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land as implemented at New Mexico Tech (SEBALNM) is used to estimate sensible and latent heat fluxes in the White Volta Basin of Ghana, West Africa. The objectives are (i) to demonstrate a SEBALNM application in a part of the world were ground measurements are very scarce and (ii) to compare evapotranspiration (ET) maps obtained from Landsat and MODIS imagery, respectively. The results of this study demonstrate that SEBALNM can be applied for mapping sensible and latent heat fluxes as well as soil moisture over areas where few or no ground measurements are available using common satellite products (Landsat and MODIS).Water Resources SectionCivil Engineering and Geoscience
High adherence level to artemisinin-based combination therapies in rural settlement 11 years after their introduction in the health system, Nanoro, Burkina Faso
No full textToussaint Rouamba,1,2 Paul Sondo,2 Isidore W Yerbanga,2 Adelaide Compaore,2 Maminata Traore-Coulibaly,2 Franck S Hien,2 Nassirou A Diande,2 Daniel Valia,2 Innocent Valea,2 Patricia Akweongo,3 Rita Baiden,4 Fred Binka,4 Fati Kirakoya-Samadoulougou,1 Halidou Tinto2 1Center for Research in Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Clinical Research, School of Public Health, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium; 2Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro, Institute for Research in Health Sciences, National Center for Scientific and Technological Research, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; 3Epidemiology and Disease Control Department, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana; 4INDEPTH-Network, Accra, Ghana Purpose: In 2005, Burkina Faso changed its first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria from chloroquine to artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs). Patient adherence to ACTs regimen is a keystone to achieve the expected therapeutic outcome and prevent the emergence and spread of parasite resistance. Eleven years after the introduction of ACTs in the health system, this study aimed to measure adherence level of patients in rural settlement and investigate the determinants of nonadherence.Patients and methods: The study was carried out at public peripheral health facilities from May 2017 to August 2017 in Nanoro health district, Burkina Faso. An electronic semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection from patients with an ACT prescription at their medical consultation exit visit and during home visit at day 5±2. Adherence level was measured through self-report and pill counts. Logistic regression was performed to identify factors for nonadherence.Results: The analysis was conducted on 199 outpatients who received ACT as prescription. About 92.5% of ACT prescriptions included artemether-lumefantrine tablets. Adherence level was measured in 97.0% of included patients at day 5±2. Of these, 86.0% were classified as “complete adherent” and 14.0% as “nonadherent”. In univariate analysis, patients/caregivers who considered that affordability of ACTs was easy seemed to be less adherent to the treatment regimen (OR: 0.26; 95% CI: 0.07–0.70). In univariate and multivariable analyses, patients/caregivers who did not receive advices from health care workers (HCWs) were more likely to be nonadherent to the prescribed ACTs (adjusted OR: 3.21; 95% CI: 1.13–9.12).Conclusion: This study demonstrates that majority of those who get an ACT prescription comply with the recommended regimen. This emphasizes that in rural settings where ACTs are provided free of charge or at a subsidized price, patient adherence to ACTs is high, thus minimizing the risk of subtherapeutic concentrations of the drug in blood which is known to increase resistance and susceptibility to new infections. Therefore, to address the problem of patient nonadherence, strategy to strengthen communication between HCWs and patients should be given greater consideration. Keywords: malaria, hyperendemic area, drug prescription, artemether-lumefantrine, amodiaquine-artesunate
 
HIV/AIDS-related mortality in Africa and Asia: evidence from INDEPTH health and demographic surveillance system sites
Get PDFBackground: As the HIV/AIDS pandemic has evolved over recent decades, Africa has been the most affected region, even though a large proportion of HIV/AIDS deaths have not been documented at the individual level. Systematic application of verbal autopsy (VA) methods in defined populations provides an opportunity to assess the mortality burden of the pandemic from individual data. Objective: To present standardised comparisons of HIV/AIDS-related mortality at sites across Africa and Asia, including closely related causes of death such as pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and pneumonia. Design: Deaths related to HIV/AIDS were extracted from individual demographic and VA data from 22 INDEPTH sites across Africa and Asia. VA data were standardised to WHO 2012 standard causes of death assigned using the InterVA-4 model. Between-site comparisons of mortality rates were standardised using the INDEPTH 2013 standard population. Results: The dataset covered a total of 10,773 deaths attributed to HIV/AIDS, observed over 12,204,043 person-years. HIV/AIDS-related mortality fractions and mortality rates varied widely across Africa and Asia, with highest burdens in eastern and southern Africa, and lowest burdens in Asia. There was evidence of rapidly declining rates at the sites with the heaviest burdens. HIV/AIDS mortality was also strongly related to PTB mortality. On a country basis, there were strong similarities between HIV/AIDS mortality rates at INDEPTH sites and those derived from modelled estimates. Conclusions: Measuring HIV/AIDS-related mortality continues to be a challenging issue, all the more so as anti-retroviral treatment programmes alleviate mortality risks. The congruence between these results and other estimates adds plausibility to both approaches. These data, covering some of the highest mortality observed during the pandemic, will be an important baseline for understanding the future decline of HIV/AIDS
Mortality from external causes in Africa and Asia: evidence from INDEPTH Health and Demographic Surveillance System Sites
Get PDFBackground: Mortality from external causes, of all kinds, is an important component of overall mortality on a global basis. However, these deaths, like others in Africa and Asia, are often not counted or documented on an individual basis. Overviews of the state of external cause mortality in Africa and Asia are therefore based on uncertain information. The INDEPTH Network maintains longitudinal surveillance, including cause of death, at population sites across Africa and Asia, which offers important opportunities to document external cause mortality at the population level across a range of settings. Objective: To describe patterns of mortality from external causes at INDEPTH Network sites across Africa and Asia, according to the WHO 2012 verbal autopsy (VA) cause categories.
Design: All deaths at INDEPTH sites are routinely registered and followed up with VA interviews. For this study, VA archives were transformed into the WHO 2012 VA standard format and processed using the InterVA-4 model to assign cause of death. Routine surveillance data also provide person-time denominators for mortality rates. Results: A total of 5,884 deaths due to external causes were documented over 11,828,253 person-years. Approximately one-quarter of those deaths were to children younger than 15 years. Causes of death were dominated by childhood drowning in Bangladesh, and by transport-related deaths and intentional injuries elsewhere. Detailed mortality rates are presented by cause of death, age group, and sex. Conclusions: The patterns of external cause mortality found here generally corresponded with expectations and other sources of information, but they fill some important gaps in population-based mortality data. They provide an important source of information to inform potentially preventive intervention designs
Serotype Profile of Nasopharyngeal Isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae Obtained from Children in Burkina Faso before and after Mass Administration of Azithromycin.
Get PDFMass drug administration (MDA) with azithromycin (AZ) has been used successfully to control trachoma. However, several studies have shown that MDA with AZ has led to the emergence of resistance to AZ in Streptococcus pneumoniae. The emergence of resistance to AZ has also been observed when this antibiotic was combined with the antimalarials used for seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC). The development of antibiotic resistance, including resistance to AZ, is sometimes associated with the emergence of a bacterial clone that belongs to a specific serotype. We hypothesize that the increase in resistance of S. pneumoniae observed after 3 years of SMC with AZ might be associated with a change in the distribution of pneumococcal serotypes. Therefore, 698 randomly selected isolates from among the 1,468 isolates of S. pneumoniae obtained during carriage studies undertaken during an SMC plus AZ trial were serotyped. A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) multiplex assay using an algorithm adapted to the detection of the pneumococcal serotypes most prevalent in African countries was used for initial serotyping, and the Quellung technique was used to complement the PCR technique when necessary. Fifty-six serotypes were detected among the 698 isolates of S. pneumoniae. A swift appearance and disappearance of many serotypes was observed, but some serotypes including 6A, 19F, 19A, 23F, and 35B were persistent. The distribution of serotypes between isolates obtained from children who had received AZ or placebo was similar. An increase in AZ resistance was seen in several serotypes following exposure to AZ. Mass drug administration with AZ led to the emergence of resistance in pneumococci of several different serotypes and did not appear to be linked to the emergence of a single serotype
Impact of IYCF practices, as measured by national nutrition surveys from 2018 to 2022, on stunting and under-5 survival in Burkina Faso: a LiST analysis
Get PDFIntroductionBurkina Faso is facing a serious public health problem of chronic malnutrition and mortality in children under the age of 5. To tackle this situation, a number of child nutrition interventions have been implemented. This study aims to assess the impact of these interventions on the nutritional status of children aged 0–5 years between 2018 and 2022.MethodsThis study is a modeling of the impact of changes in the coverage of interventions with known effect sizes, using the LiST (Lives Saved Tool). The interventions used concern infant and young child feeding, the coverage of which was measured by the 2018 to 2022 editions of the NNS conducted in Burkina Faso using the SMART methodology. It covered the national level, the Center region and the Sahel region. Extracted intervention coverage levels were entered into LiST, according to six projections in two scenarios (scenario 1 and 2). The modeling results visualized in LiST were exported to Excel for formatting into tables and/or graphs.ResultsThe measured changes in the levels of infant and young child feeding interventions included in this study led to a reduction in the number of cases of chronic malnutrition in children under 6 months of age in the second scenario projections. However, no cases of chronic malnutrition were prevented among children in the 6–59 month age group under any of the six projections. On the contrary, opportunities to save cases of chronic malnutrition have been missed. These missed opportunities amount to 64,880 in scenario 1 and 39,556 in scenario 2 at national level. Nevertheless, 920 lives were saved nationwide, 232 in the Center region and 202 in the Sahel region.ConclusionThe study highlighted the need to strengthen the implementation of IYCF interventions, coupled with a significant improvement in the quality of NNS data collection, given the up and down nature of the indicators, which makes them difficult to use for decision-making
RANDOMIZED TRIAL TO ASSESS EFFECT OF REPEATED TREATMENT OF DHA-PQ AND AL ON QTC INTERVAL IN PATIENTS PRESENTING WITH UNCOMPLICATED MALARIA IN BOBO-DIOULASSO, BURKINA FASO
No full textRandomized Noninferiority Trial of Dihydroartemisinin-Piperaquine Compared with Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine plus Amodiaquine for Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention in Burkina Faso.
Get PDFThe WHO recommends that children living in areas of highly seasonal malaria transmission in the Sahel subregion should receive seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine plus amodiaquine (SPAQ). We evaluated the use of dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DHAPQ) as an alternative drug that could be used if SPAQ starts to lose efficacy. A total of 1,499 children 3 to 59 months old were randomized to receive SMC with SPAQ or DHAPQ over 3 months. The primary outcome measure was the risk of clinical malaria (fever or a history of fever with a parasite density of at least 3,000/μl). A cohort of 250 children outside the trial was followed up as a control group. Molecular markers of drug resistance were assessed. The risk of a malaria attack was 0.19 in the DHAPQ group and 0.15 in the SPAQ group, an odds ratio of 1.33 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02 to 1.72). Efficacy of SMC compared to the control group was 77% (67% to 84%) for DHAPQ and 83% (74% to 89%) for SPAQ. pfdhfr and pfdhps mutations associated with antifolate resistance were more prevalent in parasites from children who received SPAQ than in children who received DHAPQ. Both regimens were highly efficacious and well tolerated. DHAPQ is a potential alternative drug for SMC. (This trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under registration no. NCT00941785.)
Optimal dosing of dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine for seasonal malaria chemoprevention in young children.
Get PDFYoung children are the population most severely affected by Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) with amodiaquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine provides substantial benefit to this vulnerable population, but resistance to the drugs will develop. Here, we evaluate the use of dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine as an alternative regimen in 179 children (aged 2.33-58.1 months). Allometrically scaled body weight on pharmacokinetic parameters of piperaquine result in lower drug exposures in small children after a standard mg per kg dosage. A covariate-free sigmoidal EMAX-model describes the interval to malaria re-infections satisfactorily. Population-based simulations suggest that small children would benefit from a higher dosage according to the WHO 2015 guideline. Increasing the dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine dosage and extending the dose schedule to four monthly doses result in a predicted relative reduction in malaria incidence of up to 58% during the high transmission season. The higher and extended dosing schedule to cover the high transmission period for SMC could improve the preventive efficacy substantially
