An intercomparison of seven gridded rainfall products incorporating satellite data (ARC, CHIRPS, CMORPH, PERSIANN, TAPEER, TARCAT, TMPA) is carried out over Central Africa, by evaluating them against three observed datasets: (a) the WaTFor database, consisting of 293 (monthly records) and 154 (daily records) rain‐gauge stations collected from global datasets, national meteorological services and monitoring projects, (b) the WorldClim v2 gridded database, and (c) a set of stations expanded from the FAOCLIM network, these two latter sets describing climate normals. All products fairly well reproduce the mean rainfall regimes and the spatial patterns of mean annual rainfall, although with some discrepancies in the east–west gradient. A systematic positive bias is found in the CMORPH product. Despite its lower spatial resolution, TAPEER shows reasonable skills. When considering daily rainfall amounts, TMPA shows best skills, followed by CMORPH, but over the central part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, TARCAT is amongst the best products. Skills ranking is however different at the interannual time‐scale, with CHIRPS and TMPA performing best, though PERSIANN has comparable skills when only fully independent stations are used as reference. A preliminary study of Southern Hemisphere dry season variability, from the example of Kinshasa, shows that it is a difficult variable to capture with satellite‐based rainfall products. Users should still be careful when using any product in the most data‐sparse regions, especially for trend assessment.

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ABSTRACT:The interannual variability of rainfall amounts and rainy days is analysed from synoptic stations located in different climatic zones of Congo-Brazzaville over the common period 1932-2007. The annual and seasonal rainfall evolution is appreciated using standardized indices. Trends examined were based on the non-parametric Mann-Kendall test (the major synoptic stations point out alternative periods of anomalies -positive and negative). A majority of negative anomalies is recorded during the 1930s and 1940s. The decade 1950 shows mainly positive anomalies with the exception of 1958 which records a general precipitation deficit all across Congo. The decade 1960 is characterized by precipitation excess over the whole Congo. The decades 1980 and 1990 experience the largest rainfall deficit (about 10-20% below the long-term mean). The evolution of the precipitation at Brazzaville is particularly stable, although there are large positive anomalies during the 1990s. The transition between positive and negative anomalies decades is not uniform across Congo. The progressive non-parametric Mann-Kendall trend test shows that there is stability in the annual rainfall and rainy days over the southern area in the period . By contrast, the annual rainfall for the northern stations shows a significant decline since about the 1980s. In the south the decline is observable only in the evolution of the March-May seasonal rainfall. In most of the stations there is a precipitation increase during the September-November rainy season.

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A comparative study in vivo of amodiaquine efficacy (35 mg/kg over 3 d) and chloroquine (25 mg/kg over 3 d) was conducted in 1991 and 1992 in Cameroon and Congo in 123 patients with uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Amodiaquine was more effective than chloroquine, with parasite clearance by day 7 in 79.7% of the patients compared with 59.4%. Sixteen of 32 (50%) P. falciparum isolates tested in vitro were resistant to chloroquine and only 3 of 34 (9%) were resistant to amodiaquine. 5.3% of patients treated with amodiaquine complained of pruritus and 18.7% of nausea, compared with 15.7% and 5% respectively of those treated with chloroquine.