In order to gain new insights into the risk factors influencing human‐T‐cell‐leukemia/lymphoma‐virus‐type‐I (HTLV‐I) mother‐to‐child transmission, a retrospective study of HTLV‐I infection among children born to HTLV‐I‐seropositive women was carried out in a highly HTLV‐I‐endemic population of African origin living in French Guyana. The study covered 81 HTLV‐I‐seropositive mothers and their 216 children aged between 18 months old and 12 years old. All plasma samples were tested for the presence of HTLV‐I antibodies by ELISA, immunofluorescence assay and Western blot. HTLV‐I provirus was detected, in the DNA extracted from peripheral‐blood mononuclear cells, by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primers specific for 3 different HTLV‐I genomic regions (LTR, gag and pX) and quantified by a competitive PCR assay. Out of the 216 children, 21 were found to be HTLV‐I‐seropositive, giving a crude HTLV‐I transmission rate of 9.7%, while among the 180 breast‐fed children 10.6% were HTLV‐I‐seropositive. Perfect concordance between serological and PCR results was observed, and none of the 195 HTLV‐I‐negative children was found HTLV‐I‐positive by PCR. In conditional (by family) logistic‐regression models, HTLV‐I seropositivity in children was associated with an elevated maternal anti‐HTLV‐I‐antibody titer (OR 2.2, p = 0.0013), a high maternal HTLV‐I proviral load (OR 2.6, p = 0.033) and child's gender, girls being more frequently HTLV‐I‐infected than boys: OR 3.6, p = 0.0077 in the model including maternal anti‐HTLV‐I‐antibody titer and OR 4.1, p = 0.002 in the model including the maternal HTLV‐I proviral load. Int. J. Cancer 82:832–836, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Elimination interventions should be implemented simultaneously throughout the entire archipelago.

No abstract

Our data do not support the assumption of an etiologic role of schistosomiasis in the oncogenesis of cervical carcinoma.

BackgroundPlasmodium falciparum is responsible for most malaria cases on Mayotte Island, in the Comorian Archipelago. Malaria is endemic and a major public health problem in the archipelago with an intense, stable and permanent transmission. This study reports results of 8 years of malaria surveillance from 2007 to 2014 after the strengthening of malaria control activities in Mayotte and the neighbouring islands.MethodsSurveillance was based on physicians’ reports of malaria cases between January 2007 and December 2014. Malaria cases were confirmed by at least a positive rapid diagnostic test and/or demonstration of Plasmodium sp. in a blood smear. The date, and the patients’ age, sex, address, presentation of symptoms, biology, treatment and recent history of travel were collected by verbal questioning during consultation and/or hospitalization. Monthly rainfall data were also compiled during the study period.ResultsFrom 2007 to 2014, 2073 cases were reported on Mayotte Island: 977 imported cases, 807 autochthonous cases and 289 cases of unknown origin. The total malaria annual parasite incidence lowered from 3.0 in 2007 to 0.07 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2014 as the autochthonous malaria incidence decreased from 1.6 to 0.004 per 1,000 inhabitants in the same period and in all age groups. Most of the imported cases came from Comoros (94 %). Severe forms represented approximately 11 % of cases, and only two deaths have been recorded among the imported cases. Approximately 19 % of cases were hospitalized (3 % in an intensive care unit). There is clearly a decrease in malaria transmission in Mayotte since 2007 and the goal of elimination seems more achievable than ever. In 2011, Mayotte entered the elimination phase when P. falciparum API passed under 1 case per 1,000 people at risk.ConclusionsThe combination of vector control measures, active surveillance and case management, including effective treatment with artemisinin-based combination therapy, has been essential to achieve a present status of low and decreasing malaria transmission on the island. Mayotte has entered the elimination phase, but some goals remain to be accomplished before a programme re-orientation toward malaria elimination is contemplated. Moreover, a regional management policy is crucial because this would allow control measures to be targeted and based on a regional surveillance-response system rather than isolated.