Toward tailored interventions in plantain (Musa paradisiaca L.) industry: Insights from heterogeneity and constraints to plantain-based cropping systems in South-Benin.

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First Report of Tomato yellow leaf curl virus in Venezuela.

Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), a member of the family Geminiviridae, is a serious production constraint to tomato worldwide. In the new world, the virus had been identified as the causal agent of tomato yellow leaf curl disease in the Caribbean countries of the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Guadeloupe and also in Florida and the Yucatan Peninsula (1). Molecular data from these TYLCV isolates identified the virus as the TYLCV prototype from Israel. During April 2004, tomato plants showing symptoms such as chlorotic leaf edges, upward leaf cupping, leaf mottling, and reduced leaf size indicative of TYLCV were observed in commercial fields in Zulia state, Venezuela. Whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci Gennadius) were present in the field and appeared to be associated with the disease. Leaf samples from nine symptomatic plants were collected and brought to the lab at Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC) for further analyses. Geminivirus infection of samples was confirmed by PCR amplification with the degenerate primer pair PAL1v1978 and PAR1c494 (2). TYLCV coat protein gene-specific primers KL04-06_TYLCV CP F and KL04-07_TYLCV CP R (3) were used to confirm the diagnosis. These primers amplified the expected 842-bp PCR product from the nine symptomatic samples. One of the resulting amplicons was cloned into the pCR-TOPO vector (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) and sequenced (GenBank Accession No. DQ302033). Sequence comparison with those available in the NCBI database indicated that the sequenced portion of the genome shared 99% nucleotide identity with the TYLCV mild strain from Portugal (GenBank Accession No. AF105975) and 98% nucleotide identity with the TYLCV mild strain from Spain (GenBank Accession No. AF071228), TYLCV Israel isolate (GenBank Accession No. AM234066), and TYLCV Mexico isolate (GenBank Accession No. DQ631892). To our knowledge, this is the first report of TYLCV infecting tomato crops in South America. Further studies are needed to clarify how TYLCV has been introduced into Venezuela. References: (1) J. E. Polston and P. K. Anderson. Plant Dis. 81:1358, 1997. (2) M. R. Rojas et al. Plant Dis. 77:340, 1993. (3) K. S. Ling et al. Plant Dis. 90:379, 2006.

[Migrant populations at the Hôpital de l'Enfance of Lausanne (HEL): evaluation inquiry, taking care and contribution of cultural mediators-translators]. / Les populations migrantes à l'Hôpital de l'Enfance de Lausanne (HEL): état des lieux, prise en charge et apport des traducteurs-médiateurs culturels.

The number of patients belonging to migrant populations who consult Lausanne's Hôpital de l'Enfance (HEL) has increased massively in an exponential manner. HEL is a facility dedicated to children with a vocation of public health and training in a university setting and it has to make a point of developing an adequate and pertinent health care system for these populations. In order to do this, a study was undertaken in the form of a prospective survey including over a thousand ambulatory patients. Administrative data (origin, date of migration, nature of the permit and legal situation), social data (home language, professional situation, number of siblings), medical (diagnosis) and psychosomatic data (sleep, enuresis) was recorded as well as data testing the level of understanding between carrier and patient. The study allowed us to define priorities of intervention: introduction of a service of translators--cultural mediators trained by the association "Appartenances" (as well as on going follow-up and assessment of this service), training of health care workers in the fields of cultural mediation and the different aspects of migrant population medicine and, finally, the creation of a steering group within the Institution. Having allowed rapid and spectacular improvement in the quality of the service provided by the HEL, this process is also included in the will to improve health care given to migrant populations at local and national levels in accordance with the priorities defined by the WHO in this domain. It is this experience which is reported in this paper.