Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G Duvallet.
Immunological diagnosis methods appear to be necessary at the occasion of large scale surveys. The authors recommend indirect immunofluorescence antibody test (IFAT) and propose the creation of a mobile team supplied with necessary equipment for immunological tests and parasitological exams to be carried out in the field.
Using official epidemiological informations, authors study evolution of sleeping sickness epidemiological situation in seven OCCGE countries: Benin, Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. 745 new cases were diagnosed in 1977 and more than 600 in 1978. We observe the extinction of historic foci in Niger and Senegal, the persistance of foci in Upper Volta and Mali and the reviviscence of foci in Benin, Ivory Coast and Togo. One of the prominent points of the present endemia is the importance of people migrations, especially between Ivory Coast and Upper Volta. It would be of major interest to enter upon an epidemiological study of this problem. An outline of situation in neighbouring countries is given. The important reviviscence of certain foci must lead to increase energies for medical surveys and vector control.
15 cases of human trypanosomiasis are reported. The patients did not travel previously through endemic areas, but all of them have stayed for a long duration in the Ouahigouya district lazaret. Never glossina were found in this district. This is suggesting a non conventional way of contamination, most likely mecanical transmission by hematophagous arthropodes. After COULM and FREZIL, the authors also raise the question of the importance of this possible mode of transmission in sleeping disease epidemiology.