Journal Article > ReviewAbstract
Pathog Glob Health. 2014 January 1; Volume 108 (Issue 1); DOI:10.1179/2047773214Y.0000000126
Ali A, Jafri RZ, Messonnier N, Tevi-Benissan C, Durrheim DN, et al.
Pathog Glob Health. 2014 January 1; Volume 108 (Issue 1); DOI:10.1179/2047773214Y.0000000126
A number of countries now include meningococcal vaccines in their routine immunization programs. This review focuses on different approaches to including meningococcal vaccines in country programs across the world and their effect on the burden of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) as reflected by pre and post-vaccine incidence rates in the last 20 years. Mass campaigns using conjugated meningococcal vaccines have lead to control of serogroup C meningococcal disease in the UK, Canada, Australia, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, and Iceland. Serogroup B disease, predominant in New Zealand, has been dramatically decreased, partly due to the introduction of an outer membrane vesicle (OMV) vaccine. Polysaccharide vaccines were used in high risk people in Saudi Arabia and Syria and in routine immunization in China and Egypt. The highest incidence region of the meningitis belt initiated vaccination with the serogroup A conjugate vaccine in 2010 and catch-up vaccination is ongoing. Overall results of this vaccine introduction are encouraging especially in countries with a moderate to high level of endemic disease. Continued surveillance is required to monitor effectiveness in countries that recently implemented these programs.
Journal Article > ResearchFull Text
Pathog Glob Health. 2021 June 22; Volume 10 (Issue 7); 787.; DOI:10.3390/pathogens10070787
Roach M, Cantu A, Vieri MK, Cotten M, Kellam P, et al.
Pathog Glob Health. 2021 June 22; Volume 10 (Issue 7); 787.; DOI:10.3390/pathogens10070787
Despite the increasing epidemiological evidence that the Onchocerca volvulus parasite is strongly associated with epilepsy in children, hence the name onchocerciasis-associated epilepsy (OAE), the pathophysiological mechanism of OAE remains to be elucidated. In June 2014, children with unprovoked convulsive epilepsy and healthy controls were enrolled in a case control study in Titule, Bas-Uélé Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to identify risk factors for epilepsy. Using a subset of samples collected from individuals enrolled in this study (16 persons with OAE and 9 controls) plasma, buffy coat, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were subjected to random-primed next-generation sequencing. The resulting sequences were analyzed using sensitive computational methods to identify viral DNA and RNA sequences. Anneloviridae, Flaviviridae, Hepadnaviridae (Hepatitis B virus), Herpesviridae, Papillomaviridae, Polyomaviridae (Human polyomavirus), and Virgaviridae were identified in cases and in controls. Not unexpectedly, a variety of bacteriophages were also detected in all cases and controls. However, none of the identified viral sequences were found enriched in OAE cases, which was our criteria for agents that might play a role in the etiology or pathogenesis of OAE.