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Objective: to contribute to improving the care of patients hospitalized in the department., Patients and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2020. We included patients of both sexes hospitalized and who died in the department whose cause of death was known., Results: During the study period, 1324 patients were hospitalized, of whom 279 died (21.07%). Of the 279 cases of death, 222 were included in the study. The clinical signs were: deterioration in general condition (95%), ascites (61.7%), hepatomegaly (57.6%), jaundice (44.9%). The most frequent diagnoses retained in our patients were: cirrhosis (39.6%), primary liver cancer (30.6%), HIV infection (11.4%), pancreatic cancer '6.8%). Causes of death were in order of frequency: hepatic encephalopathy (22.5%), primary end-stage liver cancer (20.3%), ascites fluid infection (16.2%) , hypovolemic shock (14.9%)., Conclusion: The deceased patients had chronic liver disease with a significant deterioration in general condition. Deaths are due to infectious and metabolic complications. An improvement of the technical platform is essential., (Le comité de rédaction se réserve le droit de renvoyer aux auteurs avant toute soumission à l'avis des lecteurs les manuscrits qui ne seraient pas conformes à ces modalités de présentation. En outre il leur conseille de conserver un exemplaire du manuscrit, des figures et des tableaux.)

Single-nucleotide polymorphism in APOBEC3C (resulting in a serine to isoleucine in position 188) is present in approximately 10% of African populations and greatly enhances restriction against human immunodeficiency virus-1 and simian immunodeficiency virus by improving dimerization and DNA processivity of the enzyme. In this study, we demonstrated in culture and in infected patients that hepatitis B virus (HBV) could be edited by APOBEC3CS188I. Using next-generation sequencing, we demonstrated that APOBEC3CS188I led to enhanced editing activity in 5'TpCpA→5'TpTpA context. This constitutes a new hallmark of this enzyme, which could be used to determine its impact on HBV or nuclear DNA., Competing Interests: Potential conflicts of interest. All authors: No reported conflicts of interest. All authors have submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Conflicts that the editors consider relevant to the content of the manuscript have been disclosed., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

to understand the attitude of men who have sex with men (MSM) towards the use of condoms, to identify potential barriers to their use, environmental factors that facilitate or on the contrary, prevent this use, beliefs about contracting HIV, and priority needs of MSM for general prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STI). Individual interviews conducted in private with 20 MSM. In general, MSM recognize that condoms protect against STI as well as preventing unwanted pregnancies (although this is not our purpose here). The disadvantages of condom use that they reported included the potential for them to break and their reduction of pleasure. Barriers to their use include the belief that the partner is not HIV-positive, the shame of buying condoms, inability to wear them, and lack of financial resources, as well as social norms and false beliefs. MSM are aware of the positive role of condoms against STIs, including HIV. They perceive the dangerousness of the HIV, but do not feel vulnerable to this disease. They have identified obstacles to condom use, and their lists of perceived needs suggest solutions to them. Implementing these solutions in interventions should improve the frequency of condom use.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still a major killing malignancy in sub-Saharan Africa. Lifelong intoxication with aflatoxin B1 is considered as one of the primary causes of this situation. The role of aflatoxin in HCC from a given population is commonly estimated through the prevalence of R249S mutation of TP53, a hallmark for previous exposure to the mycotoxin. However, the role of AFB1 is barely known in large part of Africa. We conducted a survey on circulating cell-free DNA from 149 patients with HCC and 213 control subjects with and without liver diseases from Cameroon and Central African Republic using droplet digital PCR technique. We observed a mutation prevalence of 24.8% (n = 37/149) in patients with tumor and 5.6% (n = 12/213) in controls (P = 2.2E-07). Patients with mutations usually displayed significantly increased circulating alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) values, high hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA loads as well as worsened values of blood cells count. Interestingly, the fraction of droplets positive for R249S was significantly larger in patients with liver cancer (15.3 ± 3.7%) than in controls (0.5 ± 0.3%, P = 7.1E-04). Our survey indicates that AFB1 is instrumental for HCC development in Middle Africa and that droplet digital PCR might be used in the region both to diagnose HCC and to conduct public health surveys on populations at risk of chronic aflatoxin intoxication.