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A pool of 38 pan-African Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in health innovation has been selected and recognized by the African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDI), through a competitive criteria based process. The process identified a number of opportunities and challenges for health R&D and innovation in the continent: i) it provides a direct evidence for the existence of innovation capability that can be leveraged to fill specific gaps in the continent; ii) it revealed a research and financing pattern that is largely fragmented and uncoordinated, and iii) it highlights the most frequent funders of health research in the continent. The CoEs are envisioned as an innovative network of public and private institutions with a critical mass of expertise and resources to support projects and a variety of activities for capacity building and scientific exchange, including hosting fellows, trainees, scientists on sabbaticals and exchange with other African and non-African institutions.

The short-term toxicity of Ficus thonningii Blume (FT) was studied in Wistar rats following daily oral administration of the leaf extract (250-500 mg kg )1 ) for 15 days. Acute toxicity, body weight changes, organ weight, food intake, clinical signs, haematology, gross and tissue histology were monitored. The body weights of treated rats increased progressively, but the changes were not significantly different from control. The relative weights of the essential organs of treated rats were unaffected in both male and female rats. Of the sixteen haematological parameters studied, only the total leukocyte counts and plateletcrit values in male rats fed 500 mg kg )1 of FT were significantly greater than similar parameters in controls. Histological findings indicated possible testicular, lung and hepatic toxicities. The LD 50 of FT was estimated to be >3000 mg kg )1 . The results suggest that short-term oral application of F. thonningii may not exert severe toxic effects in rats at doses lower than 500 mg kg )1 .

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The presence of HIV-2 in Nigeria has been confirmed serologically, but not genetically. To determine the frequency of HIV-2 infections and the dynamics between HIV-1 and HIV-2 in 35 of 36 Nigerian states, 420 blood samples were collected in 1999. Antibodies to HIV-1 and HIV-2 were detected by EIA and seroreactivity was confirmed with the INNO-LIA HIV Line Assay. The frequency of HIV-2 was 4.3% (18 of 420), with 3.8% (16 of 420) HIV-1 and HIV-2 (HIV-1/2) heterotypic and 0.5% (2 of 420) HIV-2 homotypic infections. The presence of HIV-2 subtype B in the two monotypic HIV-2 infections and subtype A in 11 (68.8%) of 16 HIV-1/2 dually seropositive samples was established by sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. HIV-2 subtype B viruses were not found in any of the HIV-1/2 dual infections, and HIV-2 subtype A strains were not identified in either of the two monotypic HIV-2 infections. Since our sample size was small and represented only convenience samples, larger randomized studies will be needed to better understand the dynamics of infection between HIV-1 and different HIV-2 subtypes and to determine whether significant biological differences exist among the HIV- 2 subtypes.