BackgroundBotswana is one of the four front line malaria elimination countries in Southern Africa, with malaria control activities that include routine vector control. Past and recent studies have shown that Anopheles arabiensis is the only known vector of Plasmodium parasites in the country. This report presents a preliminary evaluation on Anopheles species composition in seven districts of Botswana with some inferences on their vectorial role.ResultsOverall, 404 Anopheles mosquito females were collected, of which 196 were larvae collected from several breeding sites, and 208 were adults obtained from indoor pyrethrum spray catches (PSC). Anopheles arabiensis (58.9%) accounted for the highest relative frequency in 5 out of 7 districts sampled. The other species collected, among those identified, were barely represented: Anopheles longipalpis type C (16.3%), Anopheles parensis (8.9%), Anopheles quadriannulatus (5.4%), and Anopheles leesoni (0.2%). PCR test for human β-globin on mosquitoes collected by PSC showed that An. arabiensis and An. parensis had bitten human hosts. Moreover, An. arabiensis showed a non-negligible Plasmodium falciparum infection rate in two sites (3.0% and 2.5% in Chobe and Kweneng West districts, respectively).ConclusionsThis work provides first time evidence of Anopheles diversity in several areas of Botswana. Anopheles arabiensis is confirmed to be widespread in all the sampled districts and to be vector of P. falciparum. Moreover, the presence of Anopheles funestus group in Botswana has been assessed. Further research, entomological surveillance activities and possibly vector control programmes need to be better developed and implemented as well as targeting outdoors resting vectors.

Cervical cancer remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in women worldwide and is the leading cause of cancer-related death in Botswana. It is well established that women with HIV have a higher risk of persistent HPV infection leading to cervical cancer. We assessed HPV prevalence and genotype distribution in 126 tissue specimens from confirmed invasive cervical cancer cases using Abbott real-time PCR assay. Overall, 88(69.8%) women were HIV-infected. Fifty-seven (64.8%) of the HIV-infected women had a baseline CD4 + count ≥ 350 cells/μl, and 82(93.2%) were on antiretroviral therapy at the time of cervical cancer diagnosis. The median age of HIV-infected patients was signficantly younger than that of HIV-uninfected patients (p < 0.001). HPV DNA was detected in all of 126(100%) of tissues analysed in our study. The HPV genotypes identfied included the HPV-16 (75.4%), HPV-18 (28.6%) and other high-risk (hr) HPV genotypes

Identification of inter-individual variability for drug metabolism through cytochrome P450 2B6 (CYP2B6) enzyme is important for understanding the differences in clinical responses to malaria and HIV. This study evaluates the distribution of CYP2B6 alleles, haplotypes and inferred metabolic phenotypes among subjects with different ethnicity in Botswana. A total of 570 subjects were analyzed for CYP2B6 polymorphisms at position 516 G > T (rs3745274), 785 A > G (rs2279343) and 983 T > C (rs28399499). Samples were collected in three districts of Botswana where the population belongs to Bantu (Serowe/Palapye and Chobe) and San-related (Ghanzi) ethnicity. The three districts showed different haplotype composition according to the ethnic background but similar metabolic inferred phenotypes, with 59.12%, 34.56%, 2.10% and 4.21% of the subjects having, respectively, an extensive, intermediate, slow and rapid metabolic profile. The results hint at the possibility of a convergent adaptation of detoxifying metabolic phenotypes despite a different haplotype structure due to the different genetic background. The main implication is that, while there is substantial homogeneity of metabolic inferred phenotypes among the country, the response to drugs metabolized via CYP2B6 could be individually associated to an increased risk of treatment failure and toxicity. These are important facts since Botswana is facing malaria elimination and a very high HIV prevalence.