RESUMO
Monkeypox (Mpox) is a neglected viral endemic tropical disease in both Central and Western African countries transmitted to humans by an animal. However, the natural reservoir of the virus remains elusive. In this study we looked for potential reservoirs of MPXV in Gabonese wildlife to prevent future outbreaks and enrich the literature with additional data on animal reservoirs. DNA was extracted from livers and spleens from 2549 animals (bats (859), bushmeats (356), rodents (1309), and shrews (25)) collected between 2012 and 2021. DNA was analyzed by real-time and conventional PCR targeting the 14 KD Protein and the rpo subunit RNA polymerase of orthopoxviruses. No MPXV DNA was detected despite the presence of potential host reservoirs like Critcetomys, Crocidura, Praomys, and Atherurus africanus. This absence could be due to: (i) the low number of animals collected for some species, (ii) the acute nature of Mpox infection, but also (iii) the lack of the potential reservoir Funisciurus anerythrus among collected animals, and (iv) the fact that the samplings are not included in the probable ecological niche of MPXV. Longitudinal studies including potential ecological niches of both F. anerythrus and MPXV in Gabon may be useful to get more information on MPXV circulation.
RESUMO
The COVID-19 disease presents a large range of clinical manifestations and includes asymptomatic, mild, and severe cases. The level of severity is related to parameters associated with immunity, genetics, and biochemistry. Africa shows one of the lowest COVID-19 fatality rates but very few data on the biochemical markers of COVID-19 in patients and the factors associated with disease severity are available for the continent. In Gabon, the COVID-19 fatality rate is only 0.63% but almost no data on biomarkers in COVID-19 patients have been published. Both the number of COVID-19 cases and the mortality rate reported in Africa in general, and in Gabon in particular, are lower than in non-African countries. As such, understanding the factors associated with disease severity in Gabonese patients is a crucial step to better understand the disease in the African context and prepare for future COVID-19 waves and other epidemics of emerging diseases. Here, we compared biochemical and hematological markers among 753 Gabonese COVID-19 patients with asymptomatic (184/753), mild/moderate (420/753), and severe/critical (149/753) forms of the disease using an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) or a Kruskal-Wallis (KW) test. We modeled these parameters together with comorbidities, age, and sex to predict factors associated with disease severity by using a "binomial generalized linear model" utilizing the "package" stats of R software version 4.0.2. Our results showed that almost all the biochemical and hematological parameters (except creatinine, phosphorus, D-dimers, platelets, and monocytes) varied according to disease severity. However, age and the dysfunction of organs like the kidney, liver, and lung together with the decrease of electrolytes (chloride, potassium, and sodium) are the best predictors of disease severity in Gabonese patients.