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Lassa Fever: a rodent-human interaction

This resource examines the sites of interactions between humans and the multimammate mouse, Mastomys natalensis. It presents findings such as new arenaviruses in other African rodents and in snakes, that  argue preferably toward the host-switching concept. The recent emergence in Sierra Leone, the absence of virus positive Mastomys between the two endemic zones and poor virus diversity in the Mano River area also point in the direction of a unique import of Lassa virus from Nigeria to Sierra Leone during the 19th century. This resource also discusses the hypothesis of human displacements through the Atlantic slave trade and its abolition in 1807.

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Diversity and dynamics in a community of small mammals in coastal Guinea, West Africa

This resource investigated three villages in high endemic zones of Lassa fever in Guinea and presents the biodeiversity of the small mammal community identified through standardized trapping in houses, cultivations and forest.

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Forecasting rodent outbreaks in Africa: an ecological basis for Mastomys control in Tanzania

This study collected rainfall data preceding historical outbreaks of Mastomys rats in East Africa in order to test the hypothesis that such outbreaks occur after long dry periods. It found that rodent outbreaks were generally not preceded by long dry period and the population dynamics of Mastomys natalensis rats in Tanzania are significantly affected by the distribution of rainfall during the rainy season.

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Organizing the donation of convalescent plasma for a therapeutic clinical trial on Ebola Virus Disease: The experience in Guinea

This resource reports on the successful organization of donor mobilization and plasma collection as part of the Ebola-Tx clinical trial from November 2014 to July 2015 in Conakry, Guinea, the challenges they faced, and efforts made to address these.

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Fluctuation of abundance and Lassa virus prevalence in Mastomys Natalensis in Guinea, West Africa

This study investigates the link between the ecology of the M. Natalensis and the incidence of Lassa fever in human cases in Guinea. They found that the risk for Lassa virus transmission was present in both rainy and dry season; however the risk increased in the dry season because of the possibility of encountering rodent excreta in the houses.

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Movement patterns of small rodents in Lassa fever-endemic villages in Guinea

The authors investigate in this study the spatial behaviour of M. Natalensis in Upper Guinea. They use to experiments: capture-mark-recapture studies and Rhodamine B. Their findings showed that M.Natalensis moves between houses and proximate fields. This is an important information for rodent control activities that need to be extended from indoors to fields.

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Impact of Lassa fever on the practice and consumption of stored food by University of Benin community, in Benin City, Nigeria

The aim of the study is to determine the impact of Lassa fever on the consumption of processed snacks and food storage practices in University of Benin campuses. They found that the that majority discard their snacks when contaminated while some remove the contaminated portions and consume remaining part which could be a major health risk.

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Challenges in preparing and implementing a clinical trial at field level in an Ebola emergency: A case study in Guinea, West Africa

This resource describes the main challenges of the implementation of a trial in the Ebola treatment center of Guéckédou. Following the principles of the Good Clinical Research Practices, it reports the aspects of the community’s communication and engagement, ethical conduct, trial protocol compliance, informed consent of participants, ongoing benefit/risk assessment, record keeping, confidentiality of patients and study data, and roles and responsibilities of the actors involved.

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'He is now like a brother, I can even give him some blood': Relational ethics and material exchanges in a malaria vaccine 'trial community' in The Gambia

This paper explores social relations within the ‘trial community’ (staff and volunteers) of a Malaria Vaccine Trial (MVT), implemented by the Medical Research Council (MRC) in The Gambia between 2001 and 2004. It situates ethical concerns with medical research within the everyday life of scientific fieldwork. Based upon discussions with volunteers and staff, it looks at processes of mediation between scientific project and study population, between formal ethics, local ethical debates, and everyday practice.

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EBOVAC-Salone: Lessons learned from implementing an Ebola vaccine trial in an Ebola-affected country

This article describes the experiences of the EBOVAC-Salone research team in setting up and implementing the trial, and provides recommendations for research teams aiming to conduct clinical trials in future outbreak situations.

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