[Prevalence and factors associated with missed opportunities for vaccination at Niamey, Niger]. / Prevalence et facteurs associes aux occasions manquees de vaccination (OMV) a Niamey au Niger.

AIM: determine the prevalence and factors associated with missed opportunities for vaccination of children 0-23 months old in the health district Niamey 2 (Niger) in 2018. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was a cross - sectional study conducted in the health district of Niamey 2 in 2018. All children aged of 0 - 23 months which had parents aged more than 15 years old, who accepted to answer our questions were included. RESULTS: The prevalence of the missed opportunities immunization was 42.8%. Parent's perception on health services, the long waiting time, the refusal of immunization, the date of next appointment were the factors associated with the missed opportunities immunization. CONCLUSION: Taking into consideration the results of this study, the missed opportunities immunization remain important public health problems in Niger. Some actions need to be taken to improve the sensitization of communities about children immunization completeness.

BUT: déterminer la prévalence et les facteurs associés aux occasions manquées de vaccination selon la communauté (OMV) chez les enfants de 0 - 23 mois. MATÉRIELS ET MÉTHODES: Il s'est agi d'une étude descriptive transversale à visée analytique chez les enfants de 0 à 23 mois et leurs parents dans le district sanitaire Niamey 2 du 01 juin au 31 août 2018. Etaient inclus tous les enfants de 0 - 23 mois et leurs parents âgés de plus de 15 ans, acceptant de répondre à nos questions. RÉSULTATS: La prévalence des OMV était de 42,8%. Les perceptions des parents vis-à-vis des services de vaccination, le long temps d'attente, le refus de vaccination, la courtoisie des agents en demandant le carnet de vaccination des enfants, la date du prochain rendez ­ vous de même que la satisfaction des parents des services de vaccination étaient statistiquement liés aux occasions manquées de vaccination. CONCLUSION: Au regard de nos résultats, les occasions manquées de vaccination demeurent un problème de santé publique au Niger. Il revient donc aux autorités sanitaires la mise en œuvre des programmes d'intensification de sensibilisations communautaires pour assurer aux enfants une bonne complétude vaccinale.

Social ecological factors affecting substance abuse in Ghana (West Africa) using photovoice.

INTRODUCTION: Substance abuse is an important public health issue affecting West Africa; however, there is currently a dearth of literature on the actions needed to address it. The aim of this study was to assess the risks and protective factors of substance abuse in Ghana, West Africa, using the photovoice method. METHODS: This study recruited and trained 10 participants in recovery from substance abuse and undergoing treatment in the greater Accra region of Ghana on the photovoice methodology. Each participant received a disposable camera to take pictures that represented the risk and protective factors pertinent to substance abuse in their communities. They were also given the opportunity to provide narratives of the pictures using pre-identified themes and the different levels of the social-ecological model and participatory action research (PAR). RESULTS: Participants identified at the individual level: ignorance; interpersonal level: family and peer pressure; organizational level: lack of regulation; community level: media, availability of drugs, cost of drugs, urbanization, slum communities and cultural factors; and policy level: lack of regulations and their enforcement. Education and beliefs were cited at the individual level; family at the interpersonal level; religion at the organizational level; organizing youth, media and narcotics anonymous at the community level; and nothing at the policy level. CONCLUSION: This is an exploratory study that will add to the limited body of knowledge in the scientific literature with respect to substance abuse in the country and also help develop interventions to address the respective needs of several communities in Ghana.

Assessment of Genetic Variation and Population Structure of Diverse Rice Genotypes Adapted to Lowland and Upland Ecologies in Africa Using SNPs.

Using interspecific crosses involving Oryza glaberrima Steud. as donor and O. sativa L. as recurrent parents, rice breeders at the Africa Rice Center developed several 'New Rice for Africa (NERICA)' improved varieties. A smaller number of interspecific and intraspecific varieties have also been released as 'Advanced Rice for Africa (ARICA)'. The objective of the present study was to investigate the genetic variation, relatedness, and population structure of 330 widely used rice genotypes in Africa using DArTseq-based single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). A sample of 11 ARICAs, 85 NERICAs, 62 O. sativa spp. japonica, and 172 O. sativa spp. indica genotypes were genotyped with 27,560 SNPs using diversity array technology (DArT)-based sequencing (DArTseq) platform. Nearly 66% of the SNPs were polymorphic, of which 15,020 SNPs were mapped to the 12 rice chromosomes. Genetic distance between pairs of genotypes that belong to indica, japonica, ARICA, and NERICA varied from 0.016 to 0.623, from 0.020 to 0.692, from 0.075 to 0.763, and from 0.014 to 0.644, respectively. The proportion of pairs of genotypes with genetic distance > 0.400 was the largest within NERICAs (35.1% of the pairs) followed by ARICAs (18.2%), japonica (17.4%), and indica (5.6%). We found one pair of japonica, 11 pairs of indica, and 35 pairs of NERICA genotypes differing by <2% of the total scored alleles, which was due to 26 pairs of genotypes with identical pedigrees. Cluster analysis, principal component analysis, and the model-based population structure analysis all revealed two distinct groups corresponding to the lowland (primarily indica and lowland NERICAs) and upland (japonica and upland NERICAs) growing ecologies. Most of the interspecific lowland NERICAs formed a sub-group, likely caused by differences in the O. glaberrima genome as compared with the indica genotypes. Analysis of molecular variance revealed very great genetic differentiation (FST = 0.688) between the lowland and upland ecologies, and 31.2% of variation attributable to differences within cluster groups. About 8% (1,197 of 15,020) of the 15,020 SNPs were significantly (P < 0.05) different between the lowland and upland ecologies and formed contrasting haplotypes that could clearly discriminate lowland from upland genotypes. This is the first study using high density markers that characterized NERICA and ARICA varieties in comparison with indica and japonica varieties widely used in Africa, which could aid rice breeders on parent selection for developing new improved rice germplasm.

Genetic Variation and Population Structure of Oryza glaberrima and Development of a Mini-Core Collection Using DArTseq.

The sequence variation present in accessions conserved in genebanks can best be used in plant improvement when it is properly characterized and published. Using low cost and high density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) assays, the genetic diversity, population structure, and relatedness between pairs of accessions can be quickly assessed. This information is relevant for different purposes, including creating core and mini-core sets that represent the maximum possible genetic variation contained in the whole collection. Here, we studied the genetic variation and population structure of 2,179 Oryza glaberrima Steud. accessions conserved at the AfricaRice genebank using 27,560 DArTseq-based SNPs. Only 14% (3,834 of 27,560) of the SNPs were polymorphic across the 2,179 accessions, which is much lower than diversity reported in other Oryza species. Genetic distance between pairs of accessions varied from 0.005 to 0.306, with 1.5% of the pairs nearly identical, 8.0% of the pairs similar, 78.1% of the pairs moderately distant, and 12.4% of the pairs very distant. The number of redundant accessions that contribute little or no new genetic variation to the O. glaberrima collection was very low. Using the maximum length sub-tree method, we propose a subset of 1,330 and 350 accessions to represent a core and mini-core collection, respectively. The core and mini-core sets accounted for ~61 and 16%, respectively, of the whole collection, and captured 97-99% of the SNP polymorphism and nearly all allele and genotype frequencies observed in the whole O. glaberrima collection available at the AfricaRice genebank. Cluster, principal component and model-based population structure analyses all divided the 2,179 accessions into five groups, based roughly on country of origin but less so on ecology. The first, third and fourth groups consisted of accessions primarily from Liberia, Nigeria, and Mali, respectively; the second group consisted primarily of accessions from Togo and Nigeria; and the fifth and smallest group was a mixture of accessions from multiple countries. Analysis of molecular variance showed between 10.8 and 28.9% of the variation among groups with the remaining 71.1-89.2% attributable to differences within groups.