There was an outbreak of cholera in Cameroon during 2004 and 2005; the epidemic began in Douala in January 2004 and spread throughout the south of the country. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported 8005 cases in 2004 and 2847 cases in 2005. Five hundred eighty-nine stool samples were received in the Pasteur Centre of Cameroon and 352 were microbiologically confirmed to be positive for Vibrio cholerae O1. Isolated strains were tested for their antimicrobial susceptibilities. All the strains were multidrug resistant and predominantly showed a common resistance pattern at the beginning of the outbreak. Tetracycline, recommended by the WHO for treating cholera in adults, was effective against all the strains tested. Cotrimoxazole (trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole), previously a first-line treatment in children, was ineffective in vitro for all the clinical isolates and was quickly replaced by amoxicillin. Ampicillin resistance emerged at the end of 2004 and was the leading resistance pattern observed in the second half of 2005. This therefore represented the second major resistance pattern. These two major resistance profiles were not associated with patient characteristics (sex and age) or to the geographic origin of strains. However, there was a highly significant relationship between resistance patterns and the year of isolation (p < 0.001). The strains possessed genes ctxA and ctxB encoding the two cholera toxin subunits and were very closely related, irrespective of their antimicrobial resistance patterns. They were not differentiated by molecular typing methods and gave similar ribotyping and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns.
BackgroundMeasles virus (MeV) is monotypic, but genetic variation in the hemagglutinin H and nucleoprotein N genes can be analyzed by molecular epidemiologic techniques and used to study virus transmission patterns. The World Health Organization currently recognizes 8 clades (A-H) within which are 24 genotypes of MeV and one provisional genotype, d11. Genotype B3 is clearly the endemic genotype in most of African continent where it is widely distributed. We provide an update on the molecular characterization of wild-type MeVs that circulated in Cameroon between 2010 and 2011.FindingsViral RNA was extracted directly from samples obtained from clinically diagnosed measles patients using QIAamp viral RNA Mini Kit. Reverse transcription and PCR amplification of 634 nucleotides of the N gene was performed using the SuperScript™ III One-Step. Sequence analysis of 450 of the 634 nucleotides using Clustal X 2.0 program for multiple alignments and Mega version 5 for phylogenic analysis indicated that all the viruses belonged to genotype B3 with two distinct clusters. Twenty three (77%) belonged to subgroup B3.1 and the other 7 (23%) belonged to B3.3 a recently described subtype. Circulation of cluster 3 was detected in the Far-North Region (5/7) particularly along the Chad-Cameroon border in 2010 and later in Yaounde (2/7 in Biyem-assi Health District) the capital city of Cameroon in 2011.ConclusionThis study highlights the endemic circulation in Cameroon of MeV B3 subtype 1, which probably has its source in the neighboring Nigeria, and the presence of the new subtype B3.3, suggesting a possible importation from Northern Africa where it was first described between 2008 and 2009.
Background The re-emergence of yellow fever poses a serious public health risk to unimmunized communities in the tropical regions of Africa and South America and unvaccinated travelers visiting these regions. This risk is further accentuated by the likely spread of the virus to areas with potential for yellow fever transmission such as in Asia, Europe, and North America. To mitigate this risk, surveillance of yellow fever is pivotal. We performed an analysis of laboratory-based surveillance of yellow fever suspected cases in Cameroon during 2010–2020 to characterize the epidemiology of yellow fever cases and define health districts at high risk. Method We reviewed IgM capture ELISA and plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT) test results of all suspected yellow fever patients analyzed at Centre Pasteur of Cameroon, the national yellow fever testing laboratory, during 2010–2020. Results Of the 20,261 yellow fever suspected patient’s samples that were tested, yellow fever IgM antibodies were detected in 360 patients representing an annual average of 33 cases/year. A major increase in YF IgM positive cases was observed in 2015 and in 2016 followed by a decrease in cases to below pre-2015 levels. The majority of the 2015 cases occurred during the latter part of the year while those in 2016, occurred between February and May. This trend may be due to an increase in transmission that began in late 2015 and continued to early 2016 or due to two separate transmission events. In 2016, where the highest number of cases were detected, 60 health districts in the 10 regions of Cameroon were affected with the Littoral, Northwest and, Far North regions being the most affected. After 2016, the number of detected yellow fever IgM positive cases dropped. Conclusion Our study shows that yellow fever transmission continues to persist and seems to be occurring all over Cameroon with all 10 regions under surveillance reporting a case. Preventive measures such as mass vaccination campaigns and routine childhood immunizations are urgently needed to increase population immunity. The diagnostic limitations in our analysis highlight the need to strengthen laboratory capacity and improve case investigations.
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