Cameroon

A collaboration involving Franciscan religious communities in the United States and Cameroon, Africa, demonstrates that a spirit of mutuality and cross-cultural understanding can develop among partners in aid projects. Three United States-based communities of Franciscan women religious developed the "Common Venture" project as a way to celebrate their common history while undertaking systemic change. Wanting to have an international impact, they developed a relationship almost a decade ago with the Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis in Cameroon.

The "One World One Health Initiative" has attended little to the priorities, concepts and practices of resource-poor communities confronting disease and the implications of these concerns for its biomedical, ecological and institutional approach to disease surveillance and control. Using the example of Buruli ulcer (BU) and its bacterial etiology, Mycobacterium ulcerans, in south-central Cameroon, we build on debates about the contributions of "local knowledge" and "alternative models" to biomedical knowledge of disease transmission.

BACKGROUND: Using two-way mobile phone text messages to improve adherence to antiretroviral medication enhances communication between patients and health workers. We describe the implications of participants' responses to text messages in the Cameroon Mobile Phone SMS (CAMPS) trial. FINDINGS: This is a cross-sectional analysis of data from the intervention arm of the CAMPS trial.

The developmental-assistance entreprise, "Opportunity Recycling in Ophthalmology (ORO)", recycles used but still usable equipment in Ophthalmology and material from the storage-rooms of eye clinics and private ophthalmological practices to responsible recipients in the Third World. ORO was found in 1977 and was given "Honorable Mention" from "Prix Rolex ‡ l'esprit d'entreprise" in 1978. The current project consists of locating, reconditioning, and organizing the transport of material for the Dr. A.-F.

The in vitro activities of dihydroartemisinin (the biologically active metabolite of artemisinin derivatives), chloroquine, monodesethylamodiaquine (the biologically active metabolite of amodiaquine), quinine, mefloquine, halofantrine, and pyrimethamine were assessed in 65 African isolates of Plasmodium falciparum from Yaounde, Cameroon using an isotopic microtest. The 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) values for dihydroartemisinin were within a narrow range from 0.25 to 4.56 nM, with a geometric mean of 1.11 nM (95% confidence interval = 0.96-1.28 nM).

One hundred and two children aged 0-10 years with cerebral malaria (Blantyre coma score of 2 or less) were randomly treated either with intramuscular arteether (3.2 mg/kg on Day 0, followed by 1.6 mg/kg on Days 1 to 4) or intravenous (i.v.) quinine dihydrochloride (20 mg of the salt/kg, followed by 10 mg of the salt/kg every 8 hr up to Day 6). Treatment with oral quinine sulfate (10 mg/kg every 8 hr) was substituted for i.v. quinine when the patient was able to take oral medicine.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, amodiaquine, and the sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine-amodiaquine combination for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in young children in Cameroon.

Mutations at five positions in the Plasmodium falciparum multidrug-resistance gene 1 (pfmdr1), initially thought to confer resistance to chloroquine, have been associated with in vitro resistance to amino alcohols and artemisinin derivatives in more recent studies. To assess the possible association between drug resistance phenotype and pfmdrl polymorphisms and establish the baseline pfmdr1 sequence data in Yaoundé, Cameroon, the in vitro drug sensitivity pattern was determined for 64 clinical isolates by isotopic microtest.

The availability of epidemiologic data on drug-resistant malaria based on a standardized clinical and parasitological protocol is a prerequisite for a rational therapeutic strategy to control malaria.

BACKGROUND: Artesunate plus amodiaquine is a coblistered ACT, given as a single daily intake. It has been suggested that, in view of the number of tablets to be taken (particularly in adults), it may be possible to improve compliance by allowing patients to divide the daily dose. The objectives of this randomized, comparative, open-label, multicentre study, conducted in Senegal and in Cameroon in 2005, was to demonstrate the non-inferiority and to compare the safety of artesunate plus amodiaquine, as a single daily intake versus two daily intakes.