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FLU Surveillance in Cameroon
My research team has recently endeavored to develop influenza surveillance in Cameroon, West Africa. Working with DoD-GEIS, my team is currently working to develop laboratory capacity for human and avian influenza. This project includes plans to measure dynamics and molecular epidemiology of seasonal influenza in a plantation population, conduct influenza surveillance in eight Francophone provinces, and conduct wild bird influenza surveillance.
The recent appearance of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 in sub-Saharan Africa has again drawn attention to the lack of surveillance and basic scientific knowledge of influenza viruses in Africa. While most influenza outbreaks in Africa are probably not recorded and published data are rare, the importance of influenza surveillance is increasingly being realized – especially considering the devastation and national security implications that highly pathogenic influenza could have in central African settings.
Cameroon’s population is over 16 million and many people are involved in small scale farming of domestic fowl. There is much cross-border movement and informed local trade and though regulated since March 2006, in the north, much poultry was imported from Nigeria. In the south there is importation of frozen chicken and farm parent stock from Europe (Netherlands and France) and West Africa (Ghana) and exportation of live birds and eggs to neighboring countries.
Cameroon reported H5N1 in March 2006 (http://www.oie.int/Messages/060313CMR.htm) and given its proximity and trade links to Nigeria where ongoing transmission of H5N1 is occurring and a human death has been recorded, it is a country at risk for further cases. An Interministerial Committee for Influenza was established in Cameroon in response to the outbreaks and oversees coordination of activities to prevent avian influenza.
The central African lowland rainforests also have a high diversity of wild animal species and have recently been the site of emergency or reemergence of a number of key pathogens (Hahn et al 2000; Leroy et al 2004; Jezek et al 1986; Keele et al 2006, Van Heuverswyn et al 2006, Wolfe et al. 2007). The rural communities within this forest block are key sites for the surveillance of emerging infectious diseases and our research program has established research sites in a number of these communities including rural villages and plantation communities.
HEVECAM is an industrial rubber plantation situated in the south of Cameroon. It employs over 5,000 workers and with family members supports a community of about 25,000. Employees come from throughout Cameroon and also from neighboring countries. The communities are divided into 16 camps; social services are available for employees and their families, with schools and pharmacies in each camp and a 150-bed hospital staffed wih physicians, nurses and laboratory technicians. There are also two mall commercial poultry farms within the plantation villages. Investments in lab and clinical infrastructure and partnerships with HEVECAM management by our program during the past two years will facilitate implementation of our studies in this population.
Very little is known about non-human influenza in sub-Saharan Africa. A number of recent papers have started to expand our knowledge base (Ducatez et al 2006, Ducatez et al 2007, Gaidet et al 2007) and since late 2005, our program, in collaboration with Center for Tropical Research at UCLA, Cameroon Military Health Research Center, Department of Epidemiology at UCLA, Cameroon Biodiversity Conservation Society, has collected cloacal and tracheal swabs from over 3000 birds of 222 species in 171 sites in Cameroon. Our team based in Yaoundé, Cameroon, now has experience in capturing a range of key species in different sites and we have devised a strategy for monitoring potential cross-species transmission of influenza viruses in the north of Cameroon. We have identified a series of influenza of agricultural – associated birds that are candidates for transmission of pathogens to domestic fowl, including migratory passerines and have devised techniques for capturing these species. We have identified a number of predatory species that may be key in dispersal of influenza locally and regionally and we have also identified a number of sites where interactions between domestic fowl and migratory water birds occur. These sites will be key monitoring sites for detecting potential migratory bird mediated introductions of H5N1 to Cameroon.
Our laboratory facility in Yaoundé includes both human and animal sample processing laboratories. It is based at the Military Health Research Centre in a secured military camp in Yaoundé. The facility is backed-up with a 2000 L water back-up tank, a 250 Kva automatic-switch generator and a liquid nitrogen plant. Also available are -80 ۫۫ºC freezers, automatic temperature monitoring system and certified biosafety cabinets.
Image Gallery:
My research team has recently endeavored to develop influenza surveillance in Cameroon, West Africa. Working with DoD-GEIS, my team is currently working to develop laboratory capacity for human and avian influenza. This project includes plans to measure dynamics and molecular epidemiology of seasonal influenza in a plantation population, conduct influenza surveillance in eight Francophone provinces, and conduct wild bird influenza surveillance.
The recent appearance of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 in sub-Saharan Africa has again drawn attention to the lack of surveillance and basic scientific knowledge of influenza viruses in Africa. While most influenza outbreaks in Africa are probably not recorded and published data are rare, the importance of influenza surveillance is increasingly being realized – especially considering the devastation and national security implications that highly pathogenic influenza could have in central African settings.
Cameroon’s population is over 16 million and many people are involved in small scale farming of domestic fowl. There is much cross-border movement and informed local trade and though regulated since March 2006, in the north, much poultry was imported from Nigeria. In the south there is importation of frozen chicken and farm parent stock from Europe (Netherlands and France) and West Africa (Ghana) and exportation of live birds and eggs to neighboring countries.
Cameroon reported H5N1 in March 2006 (http://www.oie.int/Messages/060313CMR.htm) and given its proximity and trade links to Nigeria where ongoing transmission of H5N1 is occurring and a human death has been recorded, it is a country at risk for further cases. An Interministerial Committee for Influenza was established in Cameroon in response to the outbreaks and oversees coordination of activities to prevent avian influenza.
The central African lowland rainforests also have a high diversity of wild animal species and have recently been the site of emergency or reemergence of a number of key pathogens (Hahn et al 2000; Leroy et al 2004; Jezek et al 1986; Keele et al 2006, Van Heuverswyn et al 2006, Wolfe et al. 2007). The rural communities within this forest block are key sites for the surveillance of emerging infectious diseases and our research program has established research sites in a number of these communities including rural villages and plantation communities.
HEVECAM is an industrial rubber plantation situated in the south of Cameroon. It employs over 5,000 workers and with family members supports a community of about 25,000. Employees come from throughout Cameroon and also from neighboring countries. The communities are divided into 16 camps; social services are available for employees and their families, with schools and pharmacies in each camp and a 150-bed hospital staffed wih physicians, nurses and laboratory technicians. There are also two mall commercial poultry farms within the plantation villages. Investments in lab and clinical infrastructure and partnerships with HEVECAM management by our program during the past two years will facilitate implementation of our studies in this population.
Very little is known about non-human influenza in sub-Saharan Africa. A number of recent papers have started to expand our knowledge base (Ducatez et al 2006, Ducatez et al 2007, Gaidet et al 2007) and since late 2005, our program, in collaboration with Center for Tropical Research at UCLA, Cameroon Military Health Research Center, Department of Epidemiology at UCLA, Cameroon Biodiversity Conservation Society, has collected cloacal and tracheal swabs from over 3000 birds of 222 species in 171 sites in Cameroon. Our team based in Yaoundé, Cameroon, now has experience in capturing a range of key species in different sites and we have devised a strategy for monitoring potential cross-species transmission of influenza viruses in the north of Cameroon. We have identified a series of influenza of agricultural – associated birds that are candidates for transmission of pathogens to domestic fowl, including migratory passerines and have devised techniques for capturing these species. We have identified a number of predatory species that may be key in dispersal of influenza locally and regionally and we have also identified a number of sites where interactions between domestic fowl and migratory water birds occur. These sites will be key monitoring sites for detecting potential migratory bird mediated introductions of H5N1 to Cameroon.
Our laboratory facility in Yaoundé includes both human and animal sample processing laboratories. It is based at the Military Health Research Centre in a secured military camp in Yaoundé. The facility is backed-up with a 2000 L water back-up tank, a 250 Kva automatic-switch generator and a liquid nitrogen plant. Also available are -80 ۫۫ºC freezers, automatic temperature monitoring system and certified biosafety cabinets.
Image Gallery:
