Publicaties
An outbreak of East Coast Fever on the Comoros; a consequence of the import of immunised cattle from Tanzania? Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde
Investigating drug resistance of Mycobacterium leprae in the Comoros Universiteit Antwerpen Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde
Clustering of leprosy beyond the household level in a highly endemic setting on the Comoros, an observational study Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde
Background
The island of Anjouan (Comoros) is highly endemic for leprosy with an annual incidence of 5-10/10,000. In May/June, 2015 single-dose Rifampicin post-exposure prophylaxis (SDR-PEP) was administered to 269 close contacts of 70 leprosy-patients in four villages as a pilot programmatic intervention. Two years later we revisited the villages for follow-up investigations. The main aim of our study was to quantify spatial ...
Protocol, rationale and design of PEOPLE (Post ExpOsure Prophylaxis for LEprosy in the Comoros and Madagascar): a cluster randomized trial on effectiveness of different modalities of implementation of post-exposure prophylaxis of leprosy contacts Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde
Background: Leprosy is an ancient infectious disease with a global annual incidence that has plateaued above 200,000 new cases since over a decade. New strategies are required to overcome this stalemate. Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) with a single dose of Rifampicin (SDR) has conditionally been recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), based on a randomized-controlled-trial in Bangladesh. More evidence is required. The Post ...
Ticks are unlikely to play a role in leprosy transmission in the Comoros (East Africa) as they do not harbour M. leprae DNA Universiteit Antwerpen Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde
Minimally invasive sampling to identify leprosy patients with a high bacterial burden in the Union of the Comoros Universiteit Antwerpen Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde
Exploring clustering of leprosy in the Comoros and Madagascar: a geospatial analysis Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde
Objectives: To identify patterns of spatial clustering of leprosy. Design: We performed a baseline survey for a trial on post-exposure prophylaxis for leprosy in Comoros and Madagascar. We screened 64 villages, door-to-door, and recorded results of screening, demographic data and geographic coordinates. To identify clusters, we fitted a purely spatial Poisson model using Kulldorff's spatial scan statistic. We used a regular Poisson model to ...