Malaria in Guinean Rural Areas: Prevalence, Management, and Ethnotherapeutic Investigations in Dionfo, Sub-Prefecture of Labe

Abstract

As part of a validation program of antimalarial traditional recipes, an ethnotherapeutic approach was applied in Dionfo, a meso-endemic Guinean rural area where conventional health facilities are insufficient. A prevalence investigation indicated a malarial burden of 4.26%. Ethnomedical and ethnobotanical surveys led to a collection of 63 plant species used against malaria from which Terminalia albida (Combretaceae) was one of the most cited. Ethnotherapeutic evaluation of a remedy based on T. albida was applied to 9 voluntary patients suffering from uncomplicated malaria. Treatment of 7 to 14 days led to an improvement of clinical symptoms and a complete parasite clearance achievement of 8/9 patients without side effects. In addition to antiplasmodial activity in vitro and in vivo previously described, this study indicates an efficacy to support the antimalarial traditional use of T. albida, which could constitute a first-aid treatment when access to other medicines is delayed in the Dionfo community. Ethnotherapeutical investigation could be a valuable approach to guide subsequent investigations on traditional remedies.

Real life condition evaluation of Inoserp PAN-AFRICA antivenom effectiveness in Cameroon

“…The epidemiological characteristics, in particular the delay between the bite and hospital presentation, and the proportion of patients having one of the three main syndromes, did not differ from those observed in most studies carried out in SSA, with the exception of the gender ratio, that was at equilibrium in this study, whereas there is usually a significantly higher number of males [3,12,18,22,27]. The patients enrolled here appears to be representative of current situations in SSA, except for particular places such as Guinea where the incidence of Elapidae bites is high, which is perhaps also observed in the Congolese forest block including southern Cameroon [3,12,30].…”