[Update on a neglected tropical disease from the routine health information system in Côte d'Ivoire: Yaws, 2001 to 2011]. / Le point sur une maladie tropicale négligée à travers le Système d'information sanitaire de routine en Côte d'Ivoire : le pian de 2001 à 2011.

GOAL: The aim of this work is to describe the epidemiological characteristics of yaws in Côte d'Ivoire from 2001 to 2011, by data from the routine health information system. METHODS: This retrospective study was conducted from available health statistics from 2001 to 2011. RESULTS: From 2001 to 2006, the completeness of the regional health statistics was below 50%, while afterwards it exceeded 70% in all regions. The incidence rate of yaws in hospitals has declined from 44 to 14.8 per 100 000 population from 2002 to 2011. Two regional offices still reported highly endemic areas rates, four times higher than the national incidence. CONCLUSION: It appears that the action of donors has helped to improve the performance of the routine health information system in Côte d'Ivoire. Additionally, yaws remains endemic. The reduced incidence in hospitals is probably due to the reduction in their use by the population; the real population incidence is undoubtedly higher. A seroprevalence survey would make it possible to focus more accurately the upcoming mass treatment campaigns, under the aegis of WHO, to eradicate yaws.

[Yaws in Côte d'lvoire: health problem forgotten and neglected]. / Le pian en Côte d'Ivoire: problème de santé oublié et négligé.

Yaws is endemic in Côte d'Ivoire, with an hospital incidence estimated by the medical statistics at 0.58 per thousand in 2000; cases of yaws were notified in all medical districts. This study describes the yaws situation in Côte d'Ivoire based on available hospital statistics and a cross section investigation. The yaws diagnoses during the investigation were based on clinic lesions. The yaws prevalence found at the end of the investigation was 5 per thousand: the majority of the patients were children under 15 years old (82%) and male (91%). Only 27% of diagnosed patients had a medical treatment at the time of the study. Yaws is still endemic in Côte d'Ivoire which underlines the need for an implementation of a national control strategy.

[Parasitological and clinical response to amodiaquine versus chloroquine in the treatment of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in children in an endemic area]. / Réponses parasitologique et clinique de l'amodiaquine versus chloroquine dans le traitement de l'accès palustre simple à Plasmodium falciparum chez l'enfant en zone d'endémie.

The therapeutic management of malaria in endemic regions is now hampered not only by the limited number of antimalarial agents, but also by the appearance of chemoresistant plasmodial strains and by the sometimes severe adverse effects related to the use of some of these drugs. Between January and July 1993, 100 patients presenting with symptomatic Plasmodium falciparum malaria were randomised to receive amodiaquine or chloroquine at the dose of 30 mg/kg for 3 days. The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of these two 4-aminoquinolines in the treatment of uncomplicated malaria. The parasite clearance was 4.87 (+/- 0.33) days in the amodiaquine group and 5.55 (+/- 0.31) days in the chloroquine group. All subjects in both groups were afebrile by D7. Cutaneous adverse effects, such as pruritus, were reported with both amodiaquine (3.2%) and chloroquine (6.8%). Amodiaquine was found to be significantly more effective than chloroquine in terms of parasite clearance on D7. The therapeutic failure rate was 0% for amodiaquine versus 16.3% for chloroquine. At a time when chemoresistance of Plasmodium falciparum, especially chloroquine-resistance, has spread to malarial endemic zones, amodiaquine should be very widely indicated in the treatment of simple malaria due to its excellent efficacy and good safety.

Microheterogeneity of the carbohydrate moiety of human alpha 1-acid glycoprotein in two benign liver diseases: alcoholic cirrhosis and acute hepatitis.

To determine whether alterations of the carbohydrate moiety of human alpha 1-acid glycoprotein constitute a marker of hepatic damage we studied purified alpha 1-acid glycoprotein from healthy individuals and two groups of patients with benign liver diseases: alcoholic cirrhosis and acute viral hepatitis. The results indicate: (1) increased concanavalin A-non reactive forms in cirrhosis and hepatitis, (2) a markedly increased proportion of fucosyl residues in all cirrhotic and some hepatitis patients. Although hyperfucosylation is generally considered to be a tumor marker, the observation here in the two benign liver diseases indicates that an increased fucosyl content should be considered as a more general expression of pathological glycoconjugate metabolism.

400-MHz 1H-NMR spectroscopy of fucosylated tetrasialyl oligosaccharides isolated from normal and cirrhotic alpha 1-acid glycoprotein.

The comparative study of fucosylated tetrasialyl-oligosaccharides isolated from normal and cirrhotic alpha 1-AGP was performed using permethylation and 400-MHz 1H-NMR spectroscopy. These results clearly show the tetraantennary structure of these two oligosaccharides with hyperfucosylation for the tetrasialylated fraction from cirrhotic alpha 1-AGP. In the latter oligosaccharide the simultaneous presence on two antennae (7 and 7') of the sialosyl Lewis X determinant NeuAc-(alpha 2-3) Gal(beta 1-4) [Fuc(alpha 1-3)] GlcNAc has been observed. Moreover the 5 and 5' antennae were alpha 2-6 sialylated but without fucose.

Alterations in the carbohydrate moiety of alpha-1-acid glycoprotein purified from human cirrhotic ascitic fluid.

The carbohydrate analysis of alpha 1-AGPc purified from cirrhotic ascitic fluid was performed by immunoaffinity chromatography. It showed a large increase in the fucosyl molar ratio and sugar content (47%). The molar ratio of the oligosaccharides which were released by hydrazinolysis and fractionated by high-performance liquid chromatography confirms the marked increase in fucosyl residues in each fraction. A shift towards fractions with a high degree of branching was also observed. Moreover, the studies of sugar molar ratios and methylation of the tetrasialylated fraction indicated the simultaneous presence of sialyl and fucosyl residues on one of the outer branches.