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Background: The world has high hopes of vaccination against COVID-19 to protect the population, boost economies and return to normal life. Vaccination programmes are being rolled out in high income countries, but the pandemic continues to rage in many low-income countries (LICs) despite implementation of strict hygiene measures. We aim to present a comprehensive research protocol that will generate epidemiological, sociological, and anthropological data about the COVID-19 epidemic in Burkina Faso a landlocked country in West Africa with scares resources. Methods: We will perform a multidisciplinary research using mixed methods in the two main cities in Burkina Faso (Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso). Data will be collected in general population and in COVID-19 patients, caregivers and health care professional in reference care centers: (i) to determine cumulative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Burkinabe population using blood samples collected from randomly selected households according to the WHO-recommended protocol; (ii) develop a score to predict severe complications of COVID-19 in persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 using retrospective and prospective data; (iii) perform semi-structured interviews and direct observation on site, to describe and analyze the healthcare pathways and experiences of patients with COVID-19 attending reference care centers, and to identify the perceptions, acceptability and application of preventive strategies among the population. Discussion: This study will generate comprehensive data that will contribute to improve COVID-19 response strategies in Burkina Faso. The lessons learned from the management of the epidemic may serve as examples to the country authorities to better design preventive strategies in the case of future epidemics or pandemics.Ethics and disseminationThis project was approved by the Ministry for Health (N° 2020 - 00952/MS/CAB/INSP/CM) and the Ethics Committee for Health Research of Burkina Faso (N° 2020-8-140).

Background Sleeping under an ITN reduces contact with mosquitoes through the combination of a physical barrier and an insecticidal effect, which reduces the incidence of malaria. The 2016–2020 Burkina Faso National Malaria Strategic Plan aims to have at least 90% of the population, 100% of children under age 5, and 100% of pregnant women sleep under an ITN. Methods The analysis examines individual, household, and community-level factors associated with ITN usage. According to the 2017–18 Burkina Faso MIS, 58% of individuals in households that own at least one ITN reported that they slept under an ITN on the night before the survey. Results The use of ITNs was significantly associated with individual, household, and community-level variables that included age, gender, age of household head, number of sleeping rooms, wealth, malaria prevalence, residence, and region. Conclusions The results highlight areas of intervention at the individual, household, and community levels that can increase ITN use.

With limited resources and spatio-temporal heterogeneity of malaria in developing countries, it is still difficult to assess the real impact of socioeconomic and environmental factors in order to set up targeted campaigns against malaria at an accurate scale. Our goal was to detect malaria hotspots in rural area and assess the extent to which household socioeconomic status and meteorological recordings may explain the occurrence and evolution of these hotspots., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Hypertension, chronic and silent disease, is a public health problem. The objective of this survey was to assess the prevalence of hypertension in population in the city of Koudougou. This deals with a population survey held in one day consisting of controlling blood pressure and glycaemia among patients having values above the normal ones. All volunteering patients were included in the study. We screened 497 patients during the survey. The average age of patients was 36 ± 12.4 years with extreme of 18 and 75 years. The sex ratio was 1.1. The average systolic blood pressure was 118 ± 21.5 mmHg with extreme of 90 and 200 and the average diastolic blood pressure was 70.8 ± 11 mmHg with extreme of 50 and 100. The frequency of patients suffering from hypertension was 21.6% and that of the diabetic patients was 19%. The average age of patients suffering from hypertension was 43.9 ± 14 years against 37.5 ± 12.8 years for patients suffering from diabetes. During the previous year, 49% (n = 244) had controlled their blood pressure against 51% of cases who controlled theirs during a consultation. 16.3% of patients had their blood sugar controlled (n = 81) against 43.4% who had theirs controlled during a consultation. Hypertension is an under-diagnosed disease despite the available diagnostic tools such as self-measurement. Screening programs should be set up to establish early diagnosis of high blood pressure.

This study examined third language (L3) learning in higher education from an intercultural competence (IC) perspective. Semi-structured interviews were used to record eight (n = 8) international students’ (ISs) descriptions of their L3 learning experience. All students were full-time students at a large, public university in the United States (US) and were non-native speakers of English. Therefore, participants were learning an L3 in their second language (L2) context, English. In addition to deductive coding interview transcripts, via NVivo 11, utilizing Deardorff's (2006) intercultural competence framework, an inductive coding approach based on patterns that emerged from the data was also used. Findings strongly suggested that various factors, including the desire to learn/speak an additional language helped ISs to minimize objective challenges they confronted in relation to L3 learning. Furthermore, most participants showed an intuitive understanding of the relationship between language and culture. Subsequently, they developed skills pertaining to IC including consciousness of their own culture, openness as well as the willingness and ability to learn and function in new cultures. Due to the number of international students studying in universities in the US, coursework in higher education should include teaching IC explicitly as a component of language instruction.

This paper uses an original dataset that was built upon extensive surveys covering 300 forest fringe households on the main participatory forest management (PFM) sites in Burkina Faso. We then combine simultaneously the seminal approach of Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (1984) monetary poverty indices and the Béné’s (2013) approach of resilience on costs (expenditures) analysis, so as to emphasize forests fringe households’ resilience against poverty mainly by capturing the induced changes by the 1998 forest policy, in these households’ abilities to cope with poverty. The major outcomes are: (i) forest income sources remain the most dominant in households’ total income for 1997 and 2004; (ii) both poverty rate and poverty gap decrease from 1997 to 2004. This decline in the level of poverty is mainly explained by the households’ coping strategies through the development of investments and others expenditures (agricultural equipment, livestock, poultry, trade, crafts activities and processing of NTFPs) so that to cope with poverty; (iii) forest fringe households are resilient against poverty in PFM sites. The main environmental policy implication of this study should be to update the levels of the instruments of the environmental policy (forest), twenty years after the implementation of the 1998 forest policy so that to reinforce forest households’ resilience and forest sustainability.

This article uses data survey on 82 teachers from the University of Ouagadougou and the model of unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to assess the determinants of acceptance and educational use of ICT by teachers. The paper’s outcomes show that the construct “performance expectancy” of ICT (expected utility and expected results) positively affects the teachers’ acceptance of ICT. Acceptance of ICT and the Internet experience positively affect the educational use of ICT. However, facilitating conditions have a negative effect on these purposes. The Internet experience of teachers has a positive and significant direct effect on their specific use of ICT. These results could help public powers’ decision makers to develop effective policies for introducing ICTs in Higher Education Institutions.

In this chapter we apply a multivariate regression model to assess the effects of agro-climatic and socio-economic factors on land use and crop yields in Mali and Burkina Faso. We use 1965–1990 time-series data at national level on climate, prices, input use, infrastructure, and population density to explain land use and crop yields. The results show that infrastructure development and credit availability have, in particular, been stimuli which have enhanced cotton yields and expanded the cotton area. Farmers managed to increase cotton production against lower output prices mainly because costs were reduced by better crop management practices. Cereal and groundnut production benefited from spin-off effects at farm level, such as the availability of animal traction, fertiliser residual effects and improved market outlets. These findings confirm the importance of supportive agricultural policies that facilitate the optimal use of inputs and access to new technologies. Moreover, a sound production environment can offset the effects of adverse and deteriorating climate conditions. Further enhancement of food crop production will require additional public investments in infrastructure, markets and technological development.