Incidence and Predictors of Imported Cases of COVID-19 in Burkina Faso.

BACKGROUND: To limit the spread of COVID-19 due to imported cases, Burkina Faso has set up quarantine measures for arriving passengers. We aimed to determine the incidence and predictors of imported cases of COVID-19 in Burkina Faso. METHODS: A prospective cohort study was performed using data from passengers arriving at the airport from April 9 to August 31, 2020. The data was extracted from the District Health Information Software 2 (DHIS2) platform. Cox regression was used to identify predictors of imported cases of COVID-19. RESULTS: Among 6,332 travelers who arrived in the study period, 173 imported cases (2.7%) were recorded. The incidence rate was 1.9 cases per 1,000 traveler-days (95%CI: 1.6-2.2 per 1,000). Passengers arriving in April (Adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] = 3.56; 95%CI: 1.62-7.81) and May (aHR = 1.92; 95% CI: 1.18-3.12) were more at risk of being tested positive compared to those arriving in August, as well as, passengers presenting with one symptom (aHR = 3.71; 95% CI: 1.63-8.43) and at least two symptoms (aHR = 10.82; 95% CI: 5.24-22,30) compared to asymptomatic travelers. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of imported cases was relatively low in Burkina Faso between April and August 2020. The period of travel and the presence of symptoms at arrival predicted the risk of being tested positive to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This is essential in the context of the high circulation of virus variants worldwide and the low local capacity to perform genotyping tests to strengthen the surveillance and screening capacities at the points of entry into the country.

Outcomes of a nine-month regimen for rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis up to 24 months after treatment completion in nine African countries.

BACKGROUND: Treatment outcomes of the shorter regimen for rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis are not completely established. We report on these outcomes two years after treatment completion among patients enrolled in an observational cohort study in nine African countries. METHODS: 1,006 patients treated with the nine-month regimen were followed every six months with sputum cultures up to 24 months after treatment completion. The risk of any unfavourable outcome, of failure and relapse, and of death during and after treatment was analysed according to patient's characteristics and initial drug susceptibility by Cox proportional hazard models. FINDINGS: Respectively 67.8% and 57.2% patients had >=1 culture result six months and 12 months after treatment completion. Fourteen relapses were diagnosed. The probability of relapse-free success was 79.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] 76.6-82.0%) overall, 80.9% (95% CI 78.0-84.0%) among HIV-negative and 72.5% (95% CI 66.5-78.9%) among HIV-infected patients. Initial fluoroquinolone (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 6.7 [95% CI 3.4-13.1]) and isoniazid resistance (aHR 9.4 [95% CI 1.3-68.0]) were significantly associated with increased risk of failure/relapse and of any unfavourable outcome. INTERPRETATION: The close to 80% relapse-free success indicates the good outcome of the regimen in low-and middle-income settings. Results confirm the lesser effectiveness of the regimen in patients with initial resistance to fluoroquinolones and support the use of high-dose isoniazid, but do not support exclusion of patients for resistance to drugs other than fluoroquinolones. FUNDING: Expertise-France and Agence Française de Développement.

Corrigendum: Diagnostic moléculaire du complexe Mycobacterium tuberculosis résistant à l'isoniazide et à la rifampicine au Burkina Faso.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.11604/pamj.2015.21.73.5494.].

Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, Burkina Faso.

Because data from countries in Africa are limited, we measured the proportion of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis (TB) cases among TB patients in Burkina Faso for whom retreatment was failing. Of 34 patients with multidrug-resistant TB, 2 had an XDR TB strain. Second-line TB drugs should be strictly controlled to prevent further XDR TB increase.

Molecular detection of rifampin and isoniazid resistance to guide chronic TB patient management in Burkina Faso.

BACKGROUND: Drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) is considered a real threat to the achievement of TB control. Testing of mycobacterial culture and testing of drug susceptibility (DST) capacity are limited in resource-poor countries, therefore inadequate treatment may occur, favouring resistance development. We evaluated the molecular assay GenoType MTBDRplus (Hain Lifescience, Germany) in order to detect DR-TB directly in clinical specimens as a means of providing a more accurate management of chronic TB patients in Burkina Faso, a country with a high TB-HIV co-infection prevalence. METHODS: Samples were collected in Burkina Faso where culture and DST are not currently available, and where chronic cases are therefore classified and treated based on clinical evaluation and sputum-smear microscopy results. One hundred and eight chronic TB patients (sputum smear-positive, after completing a re-treatment regimen for pulmonary TB under directly observed therapy) were enrolled in the study from December 2006 to October 2008. Two early morning sputum samples were collected from each patient, immediately frozen, and shipped to Italy in dry ice. Samples were decontaminated, processed for smear microscopy and DNA extraction. Culture was attempted on MGIT960 (Becton Dickinson, Cockeysville, USA) and decontaminated specimens were analyzed for the presence of mutations conferring resistance to rifampin and isoniazid by the molecular assay GenoType MTBDRplus. RESULTS: We obtained a valid molecular test result in 60/61 smear-positive and 47/47 smear-negative patients. Among 108 chronic TB cases we identified patients who (i) harboured rifampin- and isoniazid-susceptible strains (n 24), (ii) were negative for MTB complex DNA (n 24), and (iii) had non-tuberculous mycobacteria infections (n 13). The most represented mutation conferring rifampin-resistance was the D516V substitution in the hotspot region of the rpoB gene (43.8% of cases). Other mutations recognized were the H526D (15.6%), the H526Y (15.6%), and the S531L (9.4%). All isoniazid-resistant cases (n 36) identified by the molecular assay were carrying a S315T substitution in the katG gene. In 41.7% of cases, a mutation affecting the promoter region of the inhA gene was also detected. CONCLUSION: The GenoType MTBDRplus assay performed directly on sputum specimens improves the management of chronic TB cases allowing more appropriate anti-TB regimens.

PCR-based detection of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in urine of HIV-infected and uninfected pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis patients in Burkina Faso.

To evaluate a one-tube nested PCR-based analysis of urine for diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, a prospective analysis of urine samples from HIV- and non-HIV-infected adults with PTB and EPTB (case patients) and with pathology other than tuberculosis (TB) (control patients) was performed. Three groups of patients were classified as microbiological-positive and -negative PTB and EPTB on the basis of clinical signs and microbiological results. Urine from patients was analysed using the DNA extraction and Sechi's methods, both modified, for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were calculated. The sensitivity of the test for the microbiological-positive PTB, microbiological-negative PTB and EPTB was 40.5 % (88/217), 66.7 % (20/30) and 57.1 % (48/84), respectively. The specificity was 98.2 %. Differences were observed in the two populations infected and not infected by HIV. This method is not appropriate for detection of new TB cases in the routine laboratory, but it can be useful for cases where the clinical and bacteriological diagnosis of TB is not conclusive.