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Introduction Flooding poses a socio-environmental threat by introducing water to areas usually dry, thereby facilitating the spread of various pathogens. Flood-prone areas are vulnerable to numerous health risks, often resulting in fatalities, especially among children under five and pregnant women. Purpose This study aims to assess the health risks associated with water-borne diseases caused by flooding in the Kwilu River Valley in Kikwit. Methods This research employs a cartographic approach combined with experimentation and descriptive observation to analyze a non-probabilistic sample. Results Climatic and geomorphological factors are the primary natural causes of flooding in the Kwilu River Valley. Socio-environmental vulnerabilities among residents in the study area contribute significantly to the health risks associated with flooding. Malaria is the most prevalent water-borne disease in the Kwilu Valley, followed by diarrhoea, pneumonia, and typhoid fever. Conclusion The health risks associated with flooding in the Kwilu River Valley in Kikwit are substantial. Pathological surveillance, enhanced drainage systems, and expanded public health campaigns are essential to promote improved living conditions for the community.

This study explores nature’s role in the spatial development of the local Roman Catholic Church in Kikwit, a mid-size city in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Founded as a mission station by Belgian Jesuits in 1912, the local Church has experienced a peculiar development over the last century. Roman Catholic communities seem grouped spatially according to their function. Communities with apostolic functions are located in the western part of the city, while contemplative and intellectual communities are concentrated in the eastern part. The dividing line appears to be the Kwilu River, which separates the lively commercial and residential center on the left bank from more rural municipalities on the right bank. This paper proposes that this spatial organization results from the interplay of multiple theologies of nature that led to different ways of engaging with the natural surroundings in the region. Moreover, the research suggests that the Catholic Church’s transformation from a missionary institution to a (more or less) independent Church in Kikwit relied heavily on nature because it allowed further development of both the apostolic and contemplative functions of the Church.

Le commerce de la chèvre se développe de plus en plus dans la ville de Kikwit. Le marché de Kazamba qui porte le même nom de la commune de Kazamba dispose un stand destiné uniquement à la vente de la chèvre. Peu d’informations sont disponibles sur la place de cette activité dans l’économie du ménage, de la commune ainsi que de la ville. L‘objectif de cette étude est de déterminer les contributions économiques et sociales des ménages impliqués dans la vente de chèvres à la commune de Kazamba à Kikwit (Sud-Ouest de la RDC). Pour ce faire, une enquête socio-économique a été réalisée sur un échantillon de 30 vendeurs de chèvres du marché Kazamba. Il était question de procéder par le système d’échantillonnage aléatoire par convenance accompagné par la technique accidentelle pour constituer l’échantillon. Un questionnaire à travers les interviews individuelles, les observations directes et la technique documentaire ont servi de collecter les données. Les résultats obtenus ont montré que la commercialisation des chèvres est une source de revenu et de création d’emploi des vendeurs de chèvres au marché de Kazamba. En moyenne dix chèvres sont vendues par mois avec un revenu de 1.170.000 FC soit 850 $ américain par vendeurs créant ainsi 150 emplois directs et plusieurs emplois intermédiaires. Le revenu généré permet aux acteurs de faire face au besoin de consommation, d’épargne et d’investissement. Compte tenu de l’importance économique et sociale de cette activité, il est nécessaire d’encadrer les vendeurs de chèvres en veillant à une meilleure organisation du marché et au respect des normes sanitaires.

Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a serious global health concern because case fatality rates are approximately 50% due to recent widespread outbreaks in Africa. Well-defined nonhuman primate (NHP) models for different routes of Ebola virus exposure are needed to test the efficacy of candidate countermeasures. In this natural history study, four rhesus macaques were challenged via aerosol with a target titer of 1000 plaque-forming units per milliliter of Ebola virus. The course of disease was split into the following stages for descriptive purposes: subclinical, clinical, and decompensated. During the subclinical stage, high levels of venous partial pressure of carbon dioxide led to respiratory acidemia in three of four of the NHPs, and all developed lymphopenia. During the clinical stage, all animals had fever, viremia, and respiratory alkalosis. The decompensatory stage involved coagulopathy, cytokine storm, and liver and renal injury. These events were followed by hypotension, elevated lactate, metabolic acidemia, shock and mortality similar to historic intramuscular challenge studies. Viral loads in the lungs of aerosol-exposed animals were not distinctly different compared to previous intramuscularly challenged studies. Differences in the aerosol model, compared to intramuscular model, include an extended subclinical stage, shortened clinical stage, and general decompensated stage. Therefore, the shortened timeframe for clinical detection of the aerosol-induced disease can impair timely therapeutic administration. In summary, this nonhuman primate model of aerosol-induced EVD characterizes early disease markers and additional details to enable countermeasure development.

Ongoing Ebola virus disease outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo follow the largest recorded outbreak in Western Africa (2013–2016). To combat outbreaks, testing of medical countermeasures (therapeutics or vaccines) requires a well-defined, reproducible, animal model. Here we present Ebola virus disease kinetics in 24 Chinese-origin rhesus monkeys exposed intramuscularly to a highly characterized, commercially available Kikwit Ebola virus Filovirus Animal Non-Clinical Group (FANG) stock. Until reaching predetermined clinical disease endpoint criteria, six animals underwent anesthesia for repeated clinical sampling and were compared to six that did not. Groups of three animals were euthanized and necropsied on days 3, 4, 5, and 6 post-exposure, respectively. In addition, three uninfected animals served as controls. Here, we present detailed characterization of clinical and laboratory disease kinetics and complete blood counts, serum chemistries, Ebola virus titers, and disease kinetics for future medical countermeasure (MCM) study design and control data. We measured no statistical difference in hematology, chemistry values, or time to clinical endpoint in animals that were anesthetized for clinical sampling during the acute disease compared to those that were not.

Recent experimentation with the variants of the Ebola virus that differ in the glycoprotein’s poly-uridine site, which dictates the form of glycoprotein produced through a transcriptional stutter, has resulted in questions regarding the pathogenicity and lethality of the stocks used to develop products currently undergoing human clinical trials to combat the disease. In order to address these concerns and prevent the delay of these critical research programs, we designed an experiment that permitted us to intramuscularly challenge statistically significant numbers of naïve and vaccinated cynomolgus macaques with either a 7U or 8U variant of the Ebola virus, Kikwit isolate. In naïve animals, no difference in survivorship was observed; however, there was a significant delay in the disease course between the two groups. Significant differences were also observed in time-of-fever, serum chemistry, and hematology. In vaccinated animals, there was no statistical difference in survivorship between either challenge groups, with two succumbing in the 7U group compared to 1 in the 8U challenge group. In summary, survivorship was not affected, but the Ebola virus disease course in nonhuman primates is temporally influenced by glycoprotein poly-U editing site populations.

In the 2014–2016 West Africa Ebola Virus (EBOV) outbreak, there was a significant concern raised about the potential for secondary bacterial infection originating from the gastrointestinal tract, which led to the empiric treatment of many patients with antibiotics. This retrospective pathology case series summarizes the gastrointestinal pathology observed in control animals in the rhesus EBOV-Kikwit intramuscular 1000 plaque forming unit infection model. All 31 Non-human primates (NHPs) exhibited lymphoid depletion of gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) but the severity and the specific location of the depletion varied. Mesenteric lymphoid depletion and necrosis were present in 87% (27/31) of NHPs. There was mucosal barrier disruption of the intestinal tract with mucosal necrosis and/or ulceration most notably in the duodenum (16%), cecum (16%), and colon (29%). In the intestinal tract, hemorrhage was noted most frequently in the duodenum (52%) and colon (45%). There were focal areas of bacterial submucosal invasion in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract in 9/31 (29%) of NHPs. Only 2/31 (6%) had evidence of pancreatic necrosis. One NHP (3%) experienced jejunal intussusception which may have been directly related to EBOV. Immunofluorescence assays demonstrated EBOV antigen in CD68+ macrophage/monocytes and endothelial cells in areas of GI vascular injury or necrosis.