Little focus has been paid to the role of poor mental health and childhood abuse among young people with regard to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) risk behaviour and HIV prevention in Africa. The aim of this study was to determine the association between mental health, childhood abuse and HIV sexual risk behaviour among a sample of university students in Ivory Coast. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with undergraduate students that were recruited randomly from classes at the Félix Houphouët Boigny University of Cocody. The sample included 824 university students (50% men and 50% women), with a mean age of 23.7 years (SD = 2.7). Of the 824 university students who completed the survey, 17.6% reported depression, 10.8% screened positive for post-traumatic stress disorder, 8.3% reported at least monthly heavy episodic drinking, 13.5% reported childhood physical abuse and 4.7% sexual abuse, 33.9% had two or more sexual partners in the past 12 months, 66.3% had inconsistent condom use, 23.6% had alcohol use in the context of sex and 16.7% had a history of a sexually transmitted infection In multivariable analysis among men, lack of religiousness and alcohol use in the context of sex were associated with HIV risk behaviour, and among women, poorer family background, experience of sexual and physical partner violence, alcohol use in the context of sex and depression were associated with HIV risk behaviour. Poor mental health (depression) including alcohol use and partner violence was found to be associated with HIV risk behaviour. Coordinated mental health and sexual and reproductive health services to meet the needs of university students would be desirable.

In temperate regions, influenza epidemics occur in the winter and correlate with certain climatological parameters. In African tropical regions, the effects of climatological parameters on influenza epidemics are not well defined. This study aims to identify and model the effects of climatological parameters on seasonal influenza activity in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. We studied the effects of weekly rainfall, humidity, and temperature on laboratory-confirmed influenza cases in Abidjan from 2007 to 2010. We used the Box-Jenkins method with the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) process to create models using data from 2007–2010 and to assess the predictive value of best model on data from 2011 to 2012. The weekly number of influenza cases showed significant cross-correlation with certain prior weeks for both rainfall, and relative humidity. The best fitting multivariate model (ARIMAX (2,0,0) _RF) included the number of influenza cases during 1-week and 2-weeks prior, and the rainfall during the current week and 5-weeks prior. The performance of this model showed an increase of >3 % for Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and 2.5 % for Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) compared to the reference univariate ARIMA (2,0,0). The prediction of the weekly number of influenza cases during 2011–2012 with the best fitting multivariate model (ARIMAX (2,0,0) _RF), showed that the observed values were within the 95 % confidence interval of the predicted values during 97 of 104 weeks. Including rainfall increases the performances of fitted and predicted models. The timing of influenza in Abidjan can be partially explained by rainfall influence, in a setting with little change in temperature throughout the year. These findings can help clinicians to anticipate influenza cases during the rainy season by implementing preventive measures.

Ce travail a pour objectif de déterminer les raisons de l’abandon de la prophylaxie postexposition rabique (PPE). Il s’agit d’une étude transversale et descriptive qui s’est déroulée au Centre antirabique d’Abidjan du 1er octobre au 31 décembre 2009. La collecte des données s’est faite en deux étapes: d’abord l’interview de tous les patients au centre antirabique lors de leur première consultation, ensuite une interview téléphonique un mois plus tard destinée uniquement aux sujets exposés qui avaient abandonné leur PPE. Les résultats obtenus indiquaient que sur 220 personnes enquêtées, 116, soit 52,7 %, avaient abandonné la PPE. Le refus des propriétaires d’animaux de prendre en charge les victimes (20 %) et le manque de moyens financiers pour l’achat du vaccin (13,6 %) en étaient les principales raisons. Pour réduire le taux d’abandon de la PPE, l’amélioration de l’accessibilité financière du vaccin aux populations et l’élaboration de lois obligeant les propriétaires d’animaux à prendre en charge la PPE s’avèrent nécessaires. Despite the availability of effective anti-rabies vaccine, rabies keeps affecting people in developing countries such as Côte d’Ivoire. The low compliance with Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) partially explains this situation. This study was aiming at studying the reasons to abandon PEP. This descriptive and cross-sectional study has taken place at the anti-rabies Center of Abidjan from October 1st to December 2009. Data were collected in two steps: we first interviewed all the patients at the anti-rabies center during their first consultation, and then phone interviews were conducted one month later, only with exposed patients who abandoned their PEP. These phone calls allowed us to complete the questionnaire (the status of the animal and PEP discontinuation). Patients’ verbal informed consent was obtained prior to data collection. Besides, patients were explained the risks they were exposed to and were advised to complete immunization. The results obtained revealed that, out of 220 people included in the study, 116 (52.7%) abandoned the PEP. The compliance was lower with the protocol of five injections compared to that of four injections. More than half of the patients abandoned PEP after the first injection. In 32.8% of patients who abandoned PEP, the animal was dead, disappeared, was destroyed or there were no information about it one month after bite or scratch. Animal owners’ refusal of taking in charge the victims (20%) and the lack of financial resources for purchasing the vaccine (13.6%) were the most frequent reasons to abandon PEP. To increase the protection of the human population against rabies and to increase the compliance with PEP protocols, the improvement of financial accessibility to the vaccine for population and the elaboration of compulsory regulations for animal owners to take in charge the PEP are necessary.

Résumé La mortalité maternelle constitue un problème majeur de santé publique en Côte d’Ivoire. Une prise en charge des femmes enceintes à travers des consultations prénatales de qualité pourrait contribuer à résoudre ce problème. Mais qu’en est-il de la qualité de ces consultations prénatales dans le district sanitaire de Grand-Bassam ? Pour répondre à cette question, nous avons réalisé une étude transversale à visée descriptive du 26 août au 30 septembre 2002 dans les trois établissements sanitaires en charge des consultations prénatales dans ledit District. Nous avons noté que l’intimité et la confidentialité lors de?l’examen étaient respectées ; par contre, les structures étaient inadaptées et insuffi-samment équipées, la communication interpersonnelle insuffisante et les prestataires peu accueillantes. Des recommandations ont été faites pour remédier à ces insuffisances.