An mHealth App (eSkinHealth) for Detecting and Managing Skin Diseases in Resource-Limited Settings: Mixed Methods Pilot Study.

BACKGROUND: In sub-Saharan Africa, the disease burden from skin diseases, including skin-related neglected tropical diseases (skin NTDs), is extremely high. These diseases often are overlooked due to limited access to health care stemming from, for example, remote geographical locations and a lack of experts. To address these gaps, we developed a mobile health app, eSkinHealth, which is a field-adapted platform to serve as a portable electronic patient chart and for teledermatology. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study is to evaluate the usability and effectiveness of the app in rural Côte d'Ivoire for diagnosing and managing skin NTDs and other skin diseases. METHODS: A 2-arm trial with local health care providers and patients with skin diseases was implemented over a 3-month period. The providers were assigned to an intervention receiving the eSkinHealth app or control with usual care. Four nurses and 8 community health care workers participated in each arm. The training was provided on the use of the app to the intervention arm only, while both arms were trained on skin diseases. For the usability study, we evaluated our approach with the System Usability Scale (SUS) and in-depth interviews. For the effectiveness study, our primary outcome was to evaluate the detection and management of 5 skin NTDs as our targeted diseases, namely, Buruli ulcer, leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, scabies, and yaws, using the eSkinHealth app. Procedures of our methods were reviewed and approved by the institutional review board of the Ministry of Health and by Tulane University. RESULTS: The mean age of our participants (providers) was 40.5 and 42.5 years for the intervention and control arms, respectively, and all were male (n=24). The average SUS scores taken from the intervention arm at baseline, the midpoint (6 weeks), and the end of study (12 weeks) were 72.3 (SD 11.5), 72.3 (SD 12.4), and 86.3 (SD 10.8), respectively. All participants interviewed, including 4 dermatologists and program managers, were satisfied with the app. Especially community health care workers felt empowered by being equipped with the tool. A total of 79 cases of skin NTDs were reported in the intervention arm as compared to 17 cases in the control arm (P=.002). Besides the skin NTDs, more skin diseases and conditions were reported from the control than from the intervention arm (P<.001). However, 100 cases (66%) were not given any particular diagnosis in the control arm and were documented only as a "dermatosis." In the intervention arm, 151 cases (72.9%) were diagnosed within the eSkinHealth platform, and the remaining were diagnosed on-site by dermatologists. CONCLUSIONS: The study provided evidence for the usability and effectiveness of the eSkinHealth app embedded into our surveillance approach to improve the detection and management of skin NTDs and other skin diseases in Côte d'Ivoire and, furthermore, is expected to contribute to knowledge on mobile health approaches in the control of skin diseases in resource-limited settings. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05300399; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05300399.

Emergence in Western African countries of MDR-TB, focus on Côte d'Ivoire.

Tuberculosis (TB) is responsible for a high mortality rate (2.5%) worldwide, mainly in developing countries with a high prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The emergence of multiresistant strains of TB poses an extreme risk for TB outbreaks and highlights the need for global TB control strategies. Among Western African countries, Côte d'Ivoire (CI) represents a specific example of a country with great potential to prevent TB. Specifically, CI has a promising healthcare system for monitoring diseases, including vaccination programs. However, military and political conflict in CI favors the spread of infectious diseases, TB being among the most devastating. Compilation of the studies identifying common causes of TB would be extremely beneficial for the development of treatment and prevention strategies. Therefore, the purpose of this comprehensive review is to evaluate the epidemiology of TB in CI, describe the factors involved in pathogenesis, and suggest simple and applicable prevention strategies.

[Direct current cardioversion in Abidjan: report of a ten-year practice in Institute of Cardiology of Abidjan, Ivory Coast]. / Choc électrique externe à Abidjan : bilan de dix ans de pratique à l'Institut de Cardiologie d'Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.

UNLABELLED: Direct current cardioversion is effective in arrhythmias' termination. Few is known about its use in our practice. This work aims to report its outcomes over a ten-year period in Abidjan. METHOD: One thousand, three hundred and ninety one charts of arrhythmic patients were reviewed. RESULTS: Cardioversion was attempted in 102 patients. One hundred and eighty one shocks were delivered with a mean energy of 262, 1 joules. Success occurred in 84 patients (82,3%). Cardioversion failed in 18 patients mostly in atrial fibrillation. Eight serious complications (7,8%) occurred including 1 sinus node dysfunction, 1 pulmonary oedema, 1 metrorrhagia, 2 stroke, 1 pulmonary embolism. Two patients with ventricular tachycardia died of end-stage heart failure and aftermath of a mitral valve surgery. CONCLUSION: Direct current cardioversion is effective and safe in our practice. Complications are predominantly due to the medical environment such as antiarrhythmic drugs use or clinical conditions.

Mycolactone diffuses into the peripheral blood of Buruli ulcer patients--implications for diagnosis and disease monitoring.

BACKGROUND: Mycobacterium ulcerans, the causative agent of Buruli ulcer (BU), is unique among human pathogens in its capacity to produce a polyketide-derived macrolide called mycolactone, making this molecule an attractive candidate target for diagnosis and disease monitoring. Whether mycolactone diffuses from ulcerated lesions in clinically accessible samples and is modulated by antibiotic therapy remained to be established. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDING: Peripheral blood and ulcer exudates were sampled from patients at various stages of antibiotic therapy in Ghana and Ivory Coast. Total lipids were extracted from serum, white cell pellets and ulcer exudates with organic solvents. The presence of mycolactone in these extracts was then analyzed by a recently published, field-friendly method using thin layer chromatography and fluorescence detection. This approach did not allow us to detect mycolactone accurately, because of a high background due to co-extracted human lipids. We thus used a previously established approach based on high performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. By this means, we could identify structurally intact mycolactone in ulcer exudates and serum of patients, and evaluate the impact of antibiotic treatment on the concentration of mycolactone. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our study provides the proof of concept that assays based on mycolactone detection in serum and ulcer exudates can form the basis of BU diagnostic tests. However, the identification of mycolactone required a technology that is not compatible with field conditions and point-of-care assays for mycolactone detection remain to be worked out. Notably, we found mycolactone in ulcer exudates harvested at the end of antibiotic therapy, suggesting that the toxin is eliminated by BU patients at a slow rate. Our results also indicated that mycolactone titres in the serum may reflect a positive response to antibiotics, a possibility that it will be interesting to examine further through longitudinal studies.

Multilocus VNTR analysis of Mycobacterium ulcerans strains isolated in Côte d'Ivoire.

INTRODUCTION: Buruli ulcer, caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, is endemic in more than 30 countries worldwide, with Côte d'Ivoire being among the most affected countries. METHODOLOGY: We used seven variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) markers and analyzed 114 samples from 11 Ivorian localities consisting of 33 bacterial strains and 81 clinical samples. Complete data sets at loci 1, 6, 9 and 33 were obtained for 18 of these strains (n = 15) and samples (n = 3) collected in each of the localities. RESULTS: All the strains had allelic profile [3113], corresponding to the previously described Atlantic Africa genotype. CONCLUSION: Sequencing of PCR products at all loci showed no variation in sequence or repeat number, underlining the genetic monomorphism of M. ulcerans in Côte d'Ivoire.