H3Africa is developing capacity for health-related genomics research in Africa

Background: There is exponential growth in the interest and implementation of genomics research in Africa. This growth has been facilitated by the Human Hereditary and Health in Africa (H3Africa) initiative, which aims to promote a contemporary research approach to the study of genomics and environmental determinants of common diseases in African populations. Objective: The purpose of this article is to describe important challenges affecting genomics research implementation in Africa. Methods: The observations, challenges and recommendations presented in this article were obtained through discussions by African scientists at teleconferences and face-to-face meetings, seminars at consortium conferences and in-depth individual discussions. Results: Challenges affecting genomics research implementation in Africa, which are related to limited resources include ill-equipped facilities, poor accessibility to research centers, lack of expertise and an enabling environment for research activities in local hospitals. Challenges related to the research study include delayed funding, extensive procedures and interventions requiring multiple visits, delays setting up research teams and insufficient staff training, language barriers and an underappreciation of cultural norms. While many African countries are struggling to initiate genomics projects, others have set up genomics research facilities that meet international standards. Conclusions: The lessons learned in implementing successful genomics projects in Africa are recommended as strategies to overcome these challenges. These recommendations may guide the development and application of new research programs in low-resource settings.

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Background Molecular studies on tuberculosis (TB) are rare in low-resource countries like Benin, where data on molecular study on previously treated TB cases is unavailable. Materials and Methods From January to December 2014, all smear- and culture-positive previously treated pulmonary TB patients from all TB clinics were systematically recruited. Drug susceptibility testing and spoligotyping were performed on all isolates. Results Of the 100 patients recruited, 71 (71.0%) were relapse cases and 24 (24.0%) were failure cases, while 5 (5.0%) were default cases. Resistance rate to any first-line drug was 40.0%, while 12.0% of strains were multidrug-resistant (MDR) and no strain was extensively drug-resistant (XDR). A total of 40 distinct spoligotypes were found to be corresponding to a genotypic diversity of 40.0%. ST61 was the most predominant spoligotype with prevalence of 33.0%. In all, 31 single spoligotypes and nine clusters were observed with 2 to 33 strains per cluster giving a clustering rate of 69.0%. Euro-American (Lineage 4) was the most prevalent lineage (74.0%) and Lineage 2 was associated with resistance to streptomycin. Conclusion This first insight into genetic diversity of previously treated pulmonary TB patients in Benin showed a relatively high genetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

IntroductionLa co-infection avec l'hépatite B est l'un des défis majeurs de la prise en charge du VIH depuis l'amélioration de l'accès aux antirétroviraux en Afrique. La présente étude visait à estimer la prévalence de l'hépatite B chez les personnes séropositives au VIH à Parakou et décrire les facteurs associés.MéthodesIl s'agit d'une étude transversale menée de Mai 2011 à Juin 2012 dans le service de Médecine du CHU de Parakou. Ont été inclus tous les adultes séropositifs au VIH vus en consultation ou hospitalisés. Les données ont été collectées par interviews et dépouillement de dossiers médicaux. L'antigène HBs a été recherché par un test rapide et l'ALAT a été dosé. L'analyse des données a été faite avec le logiciel EpiInfo 3.5.1. Les proportions ont été comparées grâce au test de Chi-deux ou au test de Fisher au seuil de significativité de 5%. Un modèle de régression logistique multivariable a permis d'expliquer la prévalence de l'hépatite B.RésultatsSur les 744 sujets inclus on a dénombré 555 femmes. L’âge moyen était de 35,5 + 10,1 ans. La prévalence de l'hépatite B a été estimée à 16,9% (IC95: 14,3%-19,9%). Cette prévalence était plus élevée chez les sujets originaires du Borgou/Alibori et ceux au stade 4 de l'OMS.ConclusionLa prévalence de la co-infection VIH/VHB au CHU Parakou est élevée. Le dispositif national de prise en charge et de prévention de l'hépatite B chez les personnes séropositives au VIH doit être renforcé.