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Background The etiology and optimal clinical management of acute febrile illness (AFI) is poorly understood. Methods Blood samples taken from study participants with acute fever (≥37.5°C) or a history of fever and recruited into the previous Typhoid Fever Surveillance in Africa (TSAP) study were evaluated using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based TaqMan-Array Card designed to detect a panel of bacterial, viral, and parasitic pathogens. Clinical metadata were also assessed. Results A total of 615 blood samples available for analysis originated from Burkina Faso (n = 53), Madagascar (n = 364), and Sudan (n = 198) and were taken from participants ranging in age from 0–19 years. Through the TaqMan-Array Card, at least 1 pathogen was detected in 62% (33 of 53), 24% (86 of 364), and 60% (118 of 198) of specimens from Burkina Faso, Madagascar, and Sudan, respectively. The leading identified pathogen overall was Plasmodium spp. accounting for 47% (25 of 53), 2.2% (8 of 364), and 45% (90 of 198) of AFI at the respective sites. In Madagascar, dengue virus was the most prevalent pathogen (10.2%). Overall, 69% (357 of 516) of patients with clinical diagnoses of malaria, respiratory infection, or gastrointestinal infection were prescribed a World Health Organization guideline-recommended empiric antibiotic, whereas only 45% (106 of 237) of patients with pathogens detected were treated with an antibiotic exerting likely activity. Conclusions A PCR approach for identifying multiple bacterial, viral, and parasitic pathogens in whole blood unveiled a diversity of previously undetected pathogens in AFI cases and carries implications for the appropriate management of this common syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species of Stigmatochomis are haplochromine cichlids endemic to Lake Malaŵi, and the genus currently includes four species, S. woodi (type species), S. modestus, S. pholidophorus,a n d S. pleurospilus. The latter two are known from only their holotypes. Herein, we describe two additional species, Stigmatochromis macrorhynchos and Stigmatochromis melanchros from southern Lake Malaŵi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Privatisation has become a cornerstone of the neo-liberal reforms imposed by western donors and creditors upon African states. This study of the privatisation of the tea estates in Anglophone Cameroon seems to largely confirm widespread evidence that both African governments and civil-society organisations have for various reasons been inclined to oppose externally imposed privatisation schemes. However, it shows that the most militant opposition has come from the Tole Tea Estate's predominantly female labour force whose already precarious living and working conditions have been further deteriorated by a secretive and corrupt privatisation scheme. In the absence of any public support from the regional civil-society organisations, the militant actions of the estate workers were bound to remain local expressions of anger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses the role of opposition parties in Africa's democratic transition by focusing on the Social Democratic Front (SDF) in Cameroon, one of the largest and most popular opposition parties in Africa. Several explanations are offered as to why the SDF has failed to seize power and effect social-democratic change in the country and why the party displays a lack of consensus on the so-called 'Anglophone problem'. The regime's repressive and divisive tactics, western donors' ambivalent and inconsistent attitudes towards democratic governance in the country, and the party leadership's deep divisions about future lines of action and strategy and its growing involvement in prebendal politics are all discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the role of civil society organizations in economic and political liberalization in Africa. Implementation of a neo-liberal reform package in the form of structural adjustment programs; Justification of anti-labor measures both in economic and political terms; Growth of overstaffed state enterprises and public services.

The majority of global human immunodeficiency virus infections are caused by viruses characterized by a GPGQ motif at the tip of the V3 loop. Characterization of anti-V3 monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) that neutralize isolates with the GPGQ V3 motif is an important step in designing vaccines that will induce such Abs. Consequently, seven human anti-V3 MAbs derived from the cells of individuals infected with non-B-subtype viruses (anti-V3non-B MAbs) were generated from the cells of individuals from Africa infected with circulating recombinant forms CRF02_AG, CRF09_cpx, and CRF13_cpx, each of which contains a subtype A env gene. Sequence analysis of plasma viruses revealed a GPGQ motif at the apex of the V3 loop from six of the seven subjects and a GPGR motif from one subject. The MAbs were selected with fusion proteins (FP) containing V392UG037.8 or V3JR-CSF from subtype A or B, respectively. In virus binding assays, five of the seven (71%) anti-V3non-B MAbs bound to V3-FPs from both subtype A and subtype B, while only four of the nine (44%) anti-V3B MAbs recognized both V3-FPs. Using two neutralization assays, both the anti-V3non-B and the anti-V3B MAbs neutralized subtype B viruses with similar activities, while the anti-V3non-B MAbs exhibited a tendency toward both increased potency and breadth of neutralization against non-B viruses compared to anti-V3B MAbs. Statistical significance was not achieved, due in large measure to the sizes of the MAb panels, but the overall pattern of data strongly suggests that viruses with the GPGQ motif at the tip of the V3 loop induce anti-V3 Abs with broader cross-neutralizing activity than do viruses with the GPGR motif. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]