Neuroscience research in Africa remains sparse. Devising new policies to boost Africa’s neuroscience landscape is imperative, but these must be based on accurate data on research outputs which is largely lacking. Such data must reflect the heterogeneity of research environments across the continent’s 54 countries. Here, we analyse neuroscience publications affiliated with African institutions between 1996 and 2017. Of 12,326 PubMed indexed publications, 5,219 show clear evidence that the work was performed in Africa and led by African-based researchers - on average ~5 per country and year. From here, we extract information on journals and citations, funding, international coauthorships and techniques used. For reference, we also extract the same metrics from 220 randomly selected publications each from the UK, USA, Australia, Japan and Brazil. Our dataset provides insights into the current state of African neuroscience research in a global context.

An outbreak of Legionnaire's disease was detected in Pamplona, Spain, on 1 June 2006. Patients with pneumonia were tested to detect Legionella pneumophila antigen in urine (Binax Now; Binax Inc., Scarborough, ME, USA), and all 146 confirmed cases were interviewed. The outbreak was related to district 2 (22 012 inhabitants), where 45% of the cases lived and 50% had visited; 5% lived in neighbouring districts. The highest incidence was found in the resident population of district 2 (3/1000 inhabitants), section 2 (14/1000). All 31 cooling towers of district 2 were analysed. L. pneumophila antigen (Binax Now) was detected in four towers, which were closed on 2 June. Only the strain isolated in a tower situated in section 2 of district 2 matched all five clinical isolates, as assessed by mAb and two genotyping methods, AFLP and PFGE. Eight days after closing the towers, new cases ceased appearing. Early detection and rapid coordinated medical and environmental actions permitted immediate control of the outbreak and probably contributed to the null case fatality.

No abstract

Background: Information on extrapulmonary TB is scarce in Nigeria despite being one of the 22 countries with highest burden of tuberculosis in the world and the most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa where the dual epidemics of TB and HIV/AIDS mutually co-exist.Objective: The purpose of this study was to document the burden of extrapulmonary TB in North-eastern Nigeria.Methodology: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at a DOTS treatment centre in a tertiary hospital in North-eastern Nigeria. TB treatment registers and case records of 1240 patients were reviewed over a 10-year period.Results: Out of the 1240 TB cases who received treatment at the facility; 179 (14.4%) had extra-pulmonary TB. Skeletal TB and TB lymphadenitis were the predominant forms of extra-pulmonary TB in the study i.e. 51 (28.5%) and 50 (28.0%), respectively. This was closely followed by abdominal TB (38 (21.2%), tuberculous pleural effusion (23 (12.8%), miliary TB (9 (5.0%), TB meningitis ( 3(1.7%) and others (5 (2.8%): viz; 1 (0.6%) each of-TB of the breast, TB of the skin, adrenal TB, genitourinary TB and TB pericarditis respectively. Only 101 (56.4%) of the study subjects had information on their HIV status; of whom 52 (51.5%) were HIV positive and 49 (48.5%) HIV negative. Conclusion:The study has shown that extrapulmonary TB was relatively common among TB patients receiving care at the facility despite its diagnostic challenges particularly in a resource poor setting like ours.

No abstract

Kaposi's

We report a case of a 7-year-old unimmunized child who presented with a 2 week history of nasal quality speech, hoarseness of the voice, regurgitation of feeds, and unstable gait. He had a previous history of fever, severe sore throat and bloody nasal discharge. A throat swab was negative for Corynebacterium diphtheria; however, he had received antibiotics at a primary care clinic prior to presentation. A clinical diagnosis of diphtheria with neurologic complication was made and the child was started on oral erythromycin, nasogastric tube feeding and daily physiotherapy, following which he improved. We did not prescribe diphtheria anti-toxin because of its unavailability.