Exceptional genetic variability of hepatitis B virus indicates that Rwanda is east of an emerging African genotype E/A1 divide.

In Western Africa, hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype E predominates throughout a vast crescent spanning from Senegal to Namibia and at least to the Central African Republic to the East. Although from most of the eastern parts of sub-Saharan Africa only limited sets of strains have been characterized, these belong predominantly to genotype A. To study how far the genotype E crescent extends to the East, a larger number of HBV strains from Rwanda were analyzed. Phylogenetic analysis of 45 S fragment sequences revealed strains of genotypes A (n = 30), D (n = 10), C (n = 4), and B (n = 1). Twelve genotype A sequences formed a new cluster clearly separated from the reference strains of the known sub-genotypes. Thus, with four genotypes and at least six sub-genotypes and a new cluster of genotype A strains, HBV shows an exceptional genetic variability in this small country, unprecedented in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite this exceptional genetic variability, not a single genotype E virus was found indicating that this country does not belong to the genotype E crescent, but is east of an emerging African genotype E/A1 divide.

[Prevalence of transmission of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus in home care patients]. / Prévalence du portage de Staphylocoque doré résistant a la Méthicilline chez des patients soignés a domicile.

Methicilline-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is among the most important causes of hospital-acquired infections. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of MRSA carriage among home care patients as well as among the health care personnel taking care of those patients. 93 patients and 30 staff members of the team of a home care sector in the western part of Luxembourg were screened for MRSA carriage and factors associated with carriage were investigated among the patients.