Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Public Library of Science
Résumé : International audience
BACKGROUND: Dengue fever is the most important arboviral infection that affects humans, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions. Here, we provide the first comprehensive overview of the severity of dengue epidemics in French Guiana. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We monitored hospitalized cases between 2008 and 2013. Detailed clinical features and biological parameters were collected on a daily basis from all cases. Among the 1,356 cases, 216 (16%) were classified according to the WHO 2009 classification as dengue without warning signs (WS), 926 (68%) were classified as dengue with WS and 214 (16%) were classified as severe dengue. The severity rates were similar between the three major epidemics that occurred during the study period, whereas the hospitalization rate was highest in 2013. Fluid accumulation, aspartate aminotransferase (ASAT) counts>193 IU/L and platelet counts<75,000 cells/mm3 were associated with dengue severity. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our findings provide a recent epidemiological description of the severity of dengue epidemics in French Guiana. These results highlight the potential impacts and consequences of implementing the WHO 2009 classification on hospital activity. Future studies should include virological and immunological investigations of well-documented serum samples.
ISSN: 1932-6203

hal-01477201
https://hal-univ-rennes1.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01477201
DOI : 10.1371/journal.pone.0172267
PUBMED : 28196111

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD MDPI
Résumé : International audience
Malaria remains one of the most common vector-borne diseases in the world and the definition of novel control strategies can benefit from the modeling of transmission processes. However, data-driven models are often difficult to build, as data are very often incomplete, heterogeneous in nature and in quality, and/or biased. In this context, a knowledge-based approach is proposed to build a robust and general landscape-based hazard index for malaria transmission that is tailored to the Amazonian region. A partial knowledge-based model of the risk of malaria transmission in the Amazonian region, based on landscape features and extracted from a systematic literature review, was used. Spatialization of the model was obtained by generating land use and land cover maps of the cross-border area between French Guiana and Brazil, followed by computing and combining landscape metrics to build a set of normalized landscape-based hazard indices. An empirical selection of the best index was performed by comparing the indices in terms of adequacy with the knowledge-based model, intelligibility and correlation with P. falciparum incidence rates. The selected index is easy to interpret and successfully represents the current knowledge about the role played by landscape patterns in malaria transmission within the study area. It was significantly associated with P. falciparum incidence rates, using the Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients (up to 0.79 and 0.75, respectively; p-value < 0.001), and the linear regression coefficient of determination (reaching 0.63; p-values < 0.001). This study establishes a spatial knowledge-driven, landscape-based hazard malaria index using remote sensing that can be easily produced on a regular basis and might be useful for malaria prediction, surveillance, and control. Keywords: remote sensing; land use and land cover; landscape metric; knowledge-based hazard modeling; malaria; cross-border area between French Guiana and Brazil
ISSN: 2072-4292

hal-01355255
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01355255
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01355255/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01355255/file/010066865.pdf
IRD : fdi:010066865

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD BioMed Central
Résumé : International audience
BackgroundMalaria is endemic in French Guiana, an overseas territory of France on the Guiana Shield. Since 2005, notified malaria cases are decreasing. However, new data show that malaria affects many Brazilian gold miners working illegally in French Guiana, the majority of whom are not counted in official data. In addition, one major concern is the usual practice of improper self-treatment in this mining population, raising fear of the development of antimalarial resistance. This prospective study, conducted in 2015, aimed to estimate the prevalence of Plasmodium spp. in illegal gold miners working in French Guiana. MethodsThe recruitment of gold miners was carried out in resting sites along the French Guiana-Suriname border, where they go for supplies, medical care or leisure. After recording agreement, three malaria diagnostic methods were performed: rapid diagnostic test, microscopy and PCR,ResultsAmong 421 persons recruited in the study, malaria prevalence, detected by nested-PCR, was 22.3% (CI=[18.3-26.3], n=94/421) of which 84% were asymptomatic. ConclusionThis significant malaria reservoir in a mobile and illegal population with difficult access to a health care system raises the threat of artemisinin resistance and puts the population of the Guiana Shield at risk of new transmission foci while countries of the region aim at malaria elimination. Even though French legislation may hamper dealing with this population, France must face the reality of malaria in illegal gold miners in order to meet its commitment to malaria elimination.
ISSN: 1475-2875

hal-01346800
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01346800
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01346800/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01346800/file/2016%2C%20Douine%20-%20Prevalence%20of%20Plasmodium%20spp.%20in%20illegal%20gold%20miners%20in%20French%20Guiana%20in%202015.pdf
DOI : 10.1186/s12936-016-1367-6