Albert Schweitzer remembered.

PCR amplification technology for the detection of epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV) ribonucleic acid in cell culture and clinical specimens was developed. With oligoribonucleotide primers selected from genome segment 10 of EHDV serotype 1 (EHDV-1), which codes for two nonstructural proteins (NS3 and NS3a), the PCR-based assay resulted in a 535-bp PCR product. RNAs from North American EHDV-1 prototype, EHDV-2 prototype, and a number of EHDV field isolates, including the Central African isolates of EHDV-5 and EHDV-318 propagated in cell cultures, were detected by this PCR-based assay. The specific 535-bp PCR products were visualized onto agarose gels, and the identity of the PCR products was confirmed by chemiluminescent hybridization with a 352-bp internal probe. The sensitivity of the EHDV PCR assay was increased by chemiluminescent hybridization; by this EHDV-NS3 PCR, 10 fg of EHDV RNA was detected (equivalent to 600 viral particles). Amplification product was not detected when the PCR-based assay was applied to RNAs from North American bluetongue virus prototype serotypes 2, 10, 11, 13, and 17; total nucleic acid extracts from uninfected BHK-21 cells; or unfractionated blood from calves and deer that were EHDV seronegative and virus isolation negative. The described EHDV PCR-based assay with primers derived from segment 10 of EHDV-1 resulted in detection of EHDV RNA from blood and tissues collected from calves and deer with natural and experimental EHDV infections and provides a valuable tool to study the epidemiology of EHDV infection in susceptible ruminants.

Africa, Central↗

PubMed1998

Commentary: smallpox eradication in west and central Africa revisited.

In May 1980, the Thirty-third World Health Assembly adopted a resolution accepting the report of the Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication and affirming its belief that this once-universal disease had been eradicated worldwide, 21 years after the global eradication programme had begun in 1959. A key element in the eradication effort was the surveillance-containment strategy, which was first tested in Nigeria in 1966, and which led to its adoption throughout the world. West and Central Africa became the first region of the world to be smallpox free and one by one other regions followed. One of the major lessons to be learned from the smallpox eradication programme is that interdependence is required if global results are to be achieved. Unfortunately, however, humanity has failed to learn this lesson in the long-term, and although global health has improved dramatically the gaps between the rich and poor remain vast.

Africa, Central↗