Traditional medicine: past, present and future research and development prospects and integration in the National Health System of Cameroon.

Traditional medicine refers to health practices, approaches, knowledge and beliefs incorporating plant, animal and mineral based medicines, spiritual therapies, manual techniques and exercises, applied singularly or in combination to treat, diagnose and prevent illnesses or maintain well-being. In the last decade traditional medicine has become very popular in Cameroon, partly due to the long unsustainable economic situation in the country. The high cost of drugs and increase in drug resistance to common diseases like malaria, bacteria infections and other sexually transmitted diseases has caused the therapeutic approach to alternative traditional medicine as an option for concerted search for new chemical entities (NCE). The World Health Organisation (WHO) in collaboration with the Cameroon Government has put in place a strategic platform for the practice and development of TM in Cameroon. This platform aims at harmonizing the traditional medicine practice in the country, create a synergy between TM and modern medicine and to institutionalize a more harmonized integrated TM practices by the year 2012 in Cameroon. An overview of the practice of TM past, present and future perspectives that underpins the role in sustainable poverty alleviation has been discussed. This study gives an insight into the strategic plan and road map set up by the Government of Cameroon for the organisational framework and research platform for the practice and development of TM, and the global partnership involving the management of TM in the country.

Near-full-length genome sequencing of divergent African HIV type 1 subtype F viruses leads to the identification of a new HIV type 1 subtype designated K.

We recently reported a high divergence among African subtype F strains. Three well-separated groups (F1, F2, and F3) have been shown based on the phylogenetic analysis of the p24 gag and envelope sequences with genetic distances similar to those observed for known subtypes. In this study, we characterized the near-full-length genomes of two strains from epidemiological unlinked individual belonging to each of the subgroups: F1 (96FR-MP411), F2 (95CM-MP255 and 95CM-MP257), and F3 (96CM-MP535 and 97ZR-EQTB11). Phylogenetic analysis of the near-full-length sequences and for each of the genes separately showed the same three groups, supported by high bootstrap values. Diversity plotting, BLAST subtyping, and bootstrap plotting confirmed that the divergent F strains correspond to nonrecombinant viruses. The divergence between F1 and F2 is consistently lower than that seen in any other intersubtype comparison, with the exception of subtypes B and D. Based on all the different analyses, we propose to divide subtype F into two subclades, with F1 gathering the known subtype F strains from Brazil and Finland, and our African strain (96FR-MP411), and F2 containing the 95CM-MP255 and 95CM-MP257 strains from Cameroon. The F3 strains, 97ZR-EQTB11 from the Democratic Republic of Congo and 96CM-MP535 from Cameroon, meet the criteria of a new subtype designated as K. The equidistance of subtype K to the other subtypes of HIV-1 suggests that this subtype existed as long as the others, the lower distance between B and D, and between F1 and F2 suggest a more recent subdivision for these latter strains.

Characterization of a highly replicative intergroup M/O human immunodeficiency virus type 1 recombinant isolated from a Cameroonian patient.

A Cameroonian patient with antibodies reacting simultaneously to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) group O- and group M-specific V3-loop peptides was identified. In order to confirm that this patient was coinfected with both viruses, PCRs with O- and M-specific discriminating primers corresponding to different regions of the genome were carried out with both primary lymphocyte DNA and the corresponding viral strains isolated from three consecutive patient samples. The PCR data suggested that this patient is coinfected with a group M virus and a recombinant M/O virus. Indeed, only type M gag sequences could be amplified, while for the env region, both type M and O sequences were amplified, from plasma or from DNA extracted from primary lymphocytes. Sequence analysis of a complete recombinant genome isolated from the second sample (97CA-MP645 virus isolate) revealed two intergroup breakpoints, one in the vpr gene and the second in the long terminal repeat region around the TATA box. Comparison of the type M sequences shared by the group M and the recombinant M/O viruses showed that these sequences were closely related, with only 3% genetic distance, suggesting that the M virus was one of the parental viruses. In this report we describe for the first time a recombination event in vivo between viruses belonging to two different groups, leading to a replicative virus. Recombination between strains with such distant lineages (65% overall homology) may contribute substantially to the emergence of new HIV-1 variants. We documented that this virus replicates well and became predominant in vitro. At this time, group O viruses represent a minority of the strains responsible for the HIV-1 pandemic. If such recombinant intergroup viruses gained better fitness, inducing changes in their biological properties compared to the parental group O virus, the prevalences of group O sequences could increase rapidly. This will have important implications for diagnosis of HIV-1 infections by serological and molecular tests, as well as for antiviral treatment.