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Evaluation of Rapid Tests and Identification of Algorithms for the Screening and the Serotyping of HIV Infection in West Africa To evaluate HIV rapid tests and algorithms on both serum/plasma (SP) and whole blood (WB) as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) before their implementation in any country. The goal of this is to avoid false positive/negative results, or the misclassification of HIV serotypes, particularly in countries where both HIV-1 and HIV-2 co-circulate.

Viral gastroenteritis are a problem of public health because of the high rate of morbidity and mortality, particularly in children. Among the etiologic agents, human Astroviruses are the third agents most often incriminated after Rotaviruses and Caliciviruses. Symptoms of gastroenteritis caused by Astroviruses are generally moderated compared with those observed with Rotaviruses and rarely involve hospitalization. In sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Côte d'Ivoire, the majority of viral gastroenteritis is attributed to Rotavirus with rates varying from 20 to 26%. No study on the circulation of human Astroviruses has been carried out in Côte d'Ivoire. Our objective was to detect human Astroviruses in the diarrhoeal stools in Abidjan. Seventy-two samples of human diarrhoeal stools were collected in ambulatory patients. This population was made up of 44 patients from 0 to 15 and 28 patients over 15 years old. The concentration of the viral particles of the samples was followed by the extraction of the RNA by the modified method of Boom. The extracted RNA were amplified by RT-PCR by using specific primers targeting a portion of the 3' end of the open reading frame ORF la of the genome of human Astroviruses. The amplified fragment was 192 pb. The genome of human Astroviruses was detected in 3 stools out of the 72 samples. That is a frequency of 4%. Among these 3 stools, 2 came from 4 month and 3 year-old children and the 3rd stool came from a 33 year-old patient. For the first time this survey has pointed out the circulation of human Astroviruses in the Côte d'Ivoire population. This survey also showed that human Astroviruses could be found in children as well as in adults., Les gastro-entérites virales constituent un problème de santé publique, du fait de la morbidité et de la mortalité élevées, surtout chez les enfants. Parmi les agents étiologiques, les Astrovirus sont les troisièmes agents le plus souvent incriminés après les Rotavirus et les Calicivirus. Aucune étude sur la circulation des Astrovirus humains n'a été menée en Côte d'Ivoire.72 échantillons de selles diarrhéiques provenant de patients ambulatoires ont été analysés selon la méthode de Boom, en vue de l'extraction des ARN. Les ARN extraits ont été amplifiés par RT-PCR en utilisant des amorces spécifiques ciblant une portion de l'extrémité 3' de la phase de lecture ouverte ORF 1a du génome des Astrovirus.Le génome des Astrovirus a été retrouvé dans 4% (3/72) des selles analysées.Cette étude a permis pour la première fois de mettre en évidence la circulation des Astrovirus dans la population en Côte d'Ivoire.

In order to assess the level of polio virus with natural recombinant genome and wild polio virus circulating in the environment of healthy children aged 0 to 5 years in Abidjan, 130 polio viruses made up of 26 polio type 1, 55 type 2 and 49 type 3 were identified by neutralisation test with monoclonal antibodies and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) targeting the VP1 and 3D1 gene. Four wild non Sabin-like (NSL) strains (3.1%): one type 2 and three type 3 were identified in non vaccinated children. One hundred and six (81.5%) isolates were Sabin-like, 20 (15.4%) were recombinant with the following polio virus profiles: 2 Sabin-like type 1/type 2, 3 Sabin-like type 3/type 1, 11 Sabin-like type 3/type 2 and one polio virus type 3 NSL/Sabin-like type 3. Intertypic vaccine/vaccine or vaccine/wild strain recombinant polio virus circulating among healthy children rate was high and suggested the need for a molecular surveillance of vaccine strains. Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) strains are well-known to revert to pathogenicity in vaccines. Therefore, the long term excretion of pathogenic OPV derived strains by some vaccinees needs to be considered quite seriously. It therefore suggested that all polio virus isolated from acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) be analyzed by restriction fragment length polymorphism and sequencing of the viral genome. Key words: polio virus, recombinant virus, healthy children, Cote d'Ivoire. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol.3(5) 2004: 289-293