Cervical cancer (CC) is the second most common cancer in Western Africa, accounting for 12,000 cases and 6000 deaths annually. While vaccination against human papilloma virus (HPV) and CC screenings reduce the incidence and mortality of CC in many developed countries, 90% of CC deaths are in low-income countries. Lack of knowledge about the connection between HPV and CC, lack of access to vaccines and screenings, weak healthcare infrastructure, and stigma related to sexually transmitted diseases are among the factors that contribute to this disparity. Previously, we evaluated the knowledge of HPV and CC in Bamako, Mali, showing that knowledge of the link between HPV and CC was very low (less than 8% of participants) and that less than 3% of women were screened for CC. Subsequent implementation of a community-based education program and support for local clinics resulted in a five-fold increase in CC screening at the five participating clinics in 2015. In this study, we paired CC screenings of mothers with HPV vaccination of their daughters to target out-of-school (OOS) girls whom school-based vaccination campaigns would not reach. Our campaign resulted in a 10.7% increase in HPV vaccination.

Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola (Xoc) causes bacterial leaf streak (BLS) of rice. This disease represents a major constraint for rice production, which is a crop feeding more than half of the world's population. Xoc was first described in 1918 in the Philippines and is prevalent in southeast Asia. Today, BLS is also omnipresent in both East- and West-Africa, where the disease was first reported in the early 1980s. The appearance of Xoc in Africa decades after its first report in Asia suggests that the disease could have been introduced from Asia to Africa. Strict conservation of five transcription activator-like (TAL) effectors in whole-genome sequences of 10 strains of Xoc including three from West-Africa and seven from Asia also support this hypothesis. East-Africa, especially Madagascar, where the disease was first described in 1985 is located at the interface between Asia and Africa, hence representing an interesting region to explore the link between strains from Asia and West-Africa. In this study, we did the following: (i) reconstructed the genome of a historical Xoc strain from a herbarium specimen of rice showing symptoms of BLS that was sampled in Madagascar in 1931, 50 years before the first description of the disease, and (ii) sequenced nine new modern strains, including five from Madagascar and East-Africa. The analysis of those new genomes along with previously published ones shed light within the evolutionary and epidemiological history of Xoc.Copyright (c) 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

Introduction. Antibiotic resistance is a major global health challenge that disproportionately affects low-resource countries, particularly those in West Africa. E. coli, a major pathogen in childhood diarrhea, is both a prominent infectious agent and a reservoir of resistance genes, including resistance to last-resort antibiotics such as carbapenems. Methodology. The study focused on 98 clinical E. coli isolates collected from stool samples of patients in a hospital setting in Bamako. The analyses included screening for DEC-specific virulence genes, detection of resistance genes across various classes of antibiotics (e.g., beta-lactams, carbapenems, fluoroquinolones), and identification of class I, II, and III integrons. The bla_NDM gene was sequenced to identify mutations associated with carbapenem resistance. Results. Among the isolates, 85.7% carried at least one virulence gene. Of these, half involved co-infections, commonly combining EPEC, EAEC, and ETEC strains. Regarding antibiotic resistance, 94.9% of isolates harbored at least one resistance gene, and 50% were multidrug-resistant. The most frequently detected genes were bla_TEM, qnrS1, and aphA3. Class II integrons were significantly associated with multidrug resistance (p = 0.01). Sequencing of the bla_NDM gene revealed point mutations likely to affect protein function, suggesting an evolution toward increased resistance to carbapenems. Conclusion. The high prevalence of multidrug-resistant diarrheagenic E. coli strains in this study highlights the local antibiotic pressure and the serious health threat it represents. This study shows that the new β-lactamase bla_NDM gene has disseminated in the hospital environment of Bamako. It should be noted that this will become a major challenge for clinicians.