Outbreak of Oropouche Virus in French Guiana Gaillet, Mélanie; Pichard, Clara; Restrepo, Johana ...
Emerging infectious diseases,
10/2021, Letnik:
27, Številka:
10
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Oropouche fever is a zoonotic dengue-like syndrome caused by Oropouche virus. In August-September 2020, dengue-like syndrome developed in 41 patients in a remote rainforest village in French Guiana. ...By PCR or microneutralization, 23 (82.1%) of 28 tested patients were positive for Oropouche virus, documenting its emergence in French Guiana.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
While Latin America has been heavily affected by the pandemic, only a few seroprevalence studies have been conducted there during the first epidemic wave in the first half of 2020.
A cross-sectional ...survey was performed between 15 July 2020 and 23 July 2020 among individuals who visited 4 medical laboratories or 5 health centers for routine screening or clinical management, with the exception of symptomatic suggestive cases of covid-19. Samples were screened for the presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG directed against domain S1 of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein using the anti-SARS-CoV-2 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) from Euroimmun.
The overall seroprevalence was 15.4% 9.3%-24.4% among 480 participants, ranging from 4.0% to 25.5% across the different municipalities. The seroprevalence did not differ according to gender (p = 0.19) or age (p = 0.51). Among SARS-CoV-2 positive individuals, we found that 24.6% 11.5%-45.2% reported symptoms consistent with COVID-19. Our findings revealed high levels of infection across the territory but a low number of resulting deaths, which can be explained by French Guiana's young population structure.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
While some clinical signs may point to COVID-19 or dengue in case series, at the individual patient scale, the imperfect positive predictive value and clinical variability do not guarantee a ...diagnosis of certainty (Table 1). ...some studies report 25% of patients with confirmed dengue having a cough and 20% with upper respiratory tract symptoms 14. Because of this great disruption in the organization of care, until recently it was only after receiving the results (24–48 hours for negative results) that further explorations were performed, which for a while led to potentially dangerous diagnostic delays in patients with dengue. According to the context and clinical presentation, physicians may prescribe a malaria test, blood and urine cultures, serologies, or molecular diagnosis of differential diagnoses. The extinction of the dengue virus epidemic is less likely when increased human movement enhances the rescue effect. ...modeling suggests that infection hubs and reservoirs can be locations people
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Context In 2022, four severe cases of Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) were reported in patients from informal settlements around Cayenne, the main city in French Guiana. Regional Health Agency ...(RHA) was commissioned by the French Public Health Agency to estimate the seroprevalence of Hantavirus infections in the neighborhoods of confirmed cases of HPS. RHA then commissioned the French Red Cross (FRC) mobile public health team, providing support in environmental health issues to the population living in informal settlements by health mediators, to facilitate the investigation. The objective of this study was to describe the health mediators' activities set up to improve the efficiency of the investigation. Methods The health mediators' team was specifically trained by virologist and infectiologist specialized in HPS. They helped the investigating team and health workers at various steps of the investigation. These interventions are then described in the results section. Results The investigation took place between Nov. 2022 and March 2023 in three neighborhoods. During the pre-investigation activities, the mediators raised awareness about HPS of 343 people, among whom 319 (93%) planned to participate in the investigation. Altogether, 274 people finally participated in the investigation, including, i.e., 30.8% of the estimated population living in the three concerned settlements. The global proportion of patients with positive IgG anti-Hantavirus was 5.1%. The health mediators team supported the following steps: preliminary meetings and training modules, identification of resource persons, field visits and awareness and information campaigns (pre-investigation); on field data collection in informal settlements (per-investigation) and communication of individual results, public feedback meeting (post-investigation). Discussion/Conclusion The involvement of mediators was probably a factor in the success of the public health response to socially vulnerable people living in the investigated neighborhoods. The preliminary prevention activities helped to raise awareness of the health risk and to enroll participants. Health mediation and outreach activities seem relevant tools of epidemiological field investigations in diseases affecting inhabitants of informal settlements.
An outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 caused by the Gamma variant of concern infected 24/44 (55%) employees of a gold mine in French Guiana (87% symptomatic, no severe ...forms). The attack rate was 60% (15/25) among fully vaccinated miners and 75% (3/4) among unvaccinated miners without a history of infection.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract
Background
A steady decline in the number of cases of malaria was observed in the 2000s in French Guiana. This enabled regional health policies to shift their public health goal from control ...to elimination. To include inhabitants in this strategy, the main objective of this study was to describe knowledge about malaria, and related attitudes and practices in persons living in the French Guiana border.
Methods
We conducted a survey in people over 15 years old living in the twelve neighbourhoods of Saint-Georges de l’Oyapock with the highest malaria incidence. It comprised a 147-item questionnaire which collected data on socio-demographic characteristics and included a Knowledge Attitude and Practices survey on malaria. Knowledge-related data were studied using exploratory statistical methods to derive summary variables. A binary variable assessing level of knowledge was proposed and then assessed using exploratory approaches.
Results
The mean age of the 844 participants was 37.2 years 15.8, the male/female sex ratio was 0.8. In terms of nationality, 485 (57.5%) participants were Brazilian and 352 (41.7%) French. One third (305, 36.1%) spoke Brazilian Portuguese as their native language, 295 (34.9%) the Amerindian language Palikur, 36 (4.3%) French. The symptoms of malaria and prevention means were poorly known by 213 (25.2%) and 378 (44.8%) respondents, respectively. A quarter (206, 24.4%) did not know that malaria can be fatal. Overall, 251 people (29.7%) had an overall poor level of knowledge about malaria. Being under 25 years old, living in a native Amerindian neighbourhood, having an Amerindian mother tongue language, having risk behaviours related to gold mining were significantly associated with a poor level of knowledge.
Conclusions
This study is the first to describe the poor level of knowledge about malaria in populations living in the malaria endemic border area along the Oyapock river in French Guiana. Results will allow to reinforce, to diversify and to culturally adapt prevention messages and health promotion to increase their effectiveness with a view to quickly reaching the goal of malaria elimination through empowerment.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract
Background
Cognitive dissonance theory and research has suggested that engaging in prevention interventions for other students may be a means of reducing one’s own problematic behaviors in ...order to reduce potential cognitive dissonance. This study assessed the effects of a new mandatory prevention intervention program for healthcare students in France. The aim was to measure the effects of engaging in a prevention program in schools on the usual increase in substance use in student populations.
Methods
Healthcare students were trained in a French university to develop psychosocial competences as a health promotion means (FEPS training) or more specifically to prevent substance use in teenagers (Unplugged program training). The students (
n
= 314) who accepted to take part in the study from both groups completed questionnaires before their interventions in schools, and at the end of the year, measuring their representations and behaviors regarding psychoactive substances.
Results
The results indicated a significant reduction in alcohol consumption in terms of quantity, but no significant reduction in tobacco and marijuana consumption.
Conclusions
This study showed that, contrary to the usual increase in substance use in students as they advance in their year, the students who took part in this study showed reduced self-reported consumption of alcohol after they had performed the prevention intervention in schools regardless of the type of training they had received (general health promotion vs. specific substance use prevention program). Limitations and future perspectives are discussed.
The sanitary service is a mandatory prevention training programme for all French healthcare students. Students receive training and then have to design and carry out a prevention intervention with ...various populations. The aim of this study was to analyse the type of health education interventions carried out in schools by healthcare students from one university in order to describe the topics covered and the methods used.
The 2021-2022 sanitary service of University Grenoble Alpes involved students in maieutic, medicine, nursing, pharmacy and physiotherapy. The study focused on students who intervened in school contexts. The intervention reports written by the students were read doubly by independent evaluators. Information of interest was collected in a standardised form.
Out of the 752 students involved in the prevention training program, 616 (82%) were assigned to 86 schools, mostly primary schools (58%), and wrote 123 reports on their interventions. Each school hosted a median of 6 students from 3 different fields of study. The interventions involved 6853 pupils aged between 3 and 18 years. The students delivered a median of 5 health prevention sessions to each pupil group and spent a median of 25 h (IQR: 19-32) working on the intervention. The themes most frequently addressed were screen use (48%), nutrition (36%), sleep (25%), harassment (20%) and personal hygiene (15%). All students used interactive teaching methods such as workshops, group games or debates that was addressed to pupils' psychosocial (mainly cognitive and social) competences. The themes and tools used differed according to the pupils' grade levels.
This study showed the feasibility of conducting health education and prevention activities in schools by healthcare students from five professional fields who had received appropriate training. The students were involved and creative, and they were focused on developing pupils' psychosocial competences.
Common representations of the world of gold mining-especially illegal-are usually negative: the activity conjures up images of drug trafficking, human exploitation, the sex trade, environmental ...destruction, and infectious diseases, in particular sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The aim of the present article is to describe the levels of risk behaviors such as transactional sex, multiple sexual partners, and the frequency of condom use, addictive substance consumption, and the prevalence of STIs among the population of illegal gold miners in French Guiana (FG), a French overseas entity in Amazonia, in order to guide potential interventions. An observational multicenter cross-sectional study was carried out from October to December 2019 along the two borders of FG with Suriname and Brazil at rest sites used by the miners. Among the 499 participants, transactional sex was very prevalent, declared by 33.5% of men and 8.4% of women. Condoms were more frequently used for transactional sex than with a non-commercial partner (93.4% versus 42.1%). More women were tested for HIV than men (91.1% versus 55.2%). Excessive alcohol consumption (57.3%%) and tobacco use (41.2%) were very frequent, but cocaine or crack consumption was low (1.2%), which refuted our initial assumption. Consumers of alcohol had more sexual partners and reported condom use more frequently. Prevalence of HIV, HCV, HBV, and syphilis was respectively 0.5% (95% CI: 0.1-2.1), 2.1% (95% CI: 0.7-3.6), 1.6% (95% CI: 0.3-2.8), and 12.4% (95% CI: 9.0-15.7), which was higher than in the local population, especially for syphilis. This study documents for the first time the risk behaviors of gold miners in FG. Although the level of condom use was high, the prevalence of STIs combined with the high rate of transactional sex should encourage an increase in prevention and screening, in particular through rapid tests, given the mobility of the population concerned.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Incorporating interprofessional collaboration within healthcare is critical to delivery of patient-centered care. Interprofessional Education (IPE) programs are key to promoting such collaboration. ...The 'Public Health Service' (PHS) in France is a mandatory IPE initiative that embodies this collaborative spirit, bringing together students from varied health undergraduate training programs-nursing, physiotherapy, pharmacy, midwifery, and medicine- in a common training program focused on primary prevention. The aim of the study was to assess the experience and attitudes of students in the five health training programs regarding the interest of IPEs in the PHS.
A cross-sectional survey was administered to 823 students from the 2022-2023 cohort at a French university. The questionnaire was designed with 12 Likert-scale questions specifically created to evaluate the students' experiences, knowledge, and attitudes focused on IPE during the practical seminars, school interventions, and the overall PHS. Additionally, an open-ended question was utilized to gather qualitative data. Statistical analyses assessed satisfaction levels across undergraduate training programs, while thematic analysis was applied to the qualitative responses.
Within the surveyed cohort, 344 students responded to the survey. The findings showed that students were satisfied with the interprofessional collaboration, both in practical teaching sessions (75% satisfaction) and in primary prevention projects conducted in schools (70% satisfaction), despite their having faced challenges with coordination. Pharmacy students, in particular, highlighted the need for adjustments in program scheduling. The qualitative feedback underscored the positive value of IPE, notwithstanding the organizational difficulties stemming from different academic timetables.
The student feedback indicated a high level of satisfaction with the interprofessional work carried out in both the practical teaching and the primary prevention projects. To further enhance the educational impact and address the scheduling complexities, it is recommended that program refinements be made based on student feedback and pedagogical best practices.
PDF
