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RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
Diarrhea is an important
cause of mortality and morbidity among children under five years
old in developing countries. Otherwise, during the last two
decades, with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, diarrhea is also a major
public health problem in HIV-infected adults living in sub-Saharan
Africa.
Different programs were
developed in order to improve the management of diarrhea or to
prevent enteric infections:
Identification of the
etiologies of diarrheas in children has highlighted for the
first time in Senegal the role of enteropathogenic E. coli.
Diarrheal illnesses remain
a major clinical problem for patients infected with HIV,
particularly those with the life threatening AIDS. Unfortunately
a high failure rate in the treatment of diarrhea is observed
when using UN-AIDS algorithms. One of the reasons of this high
failure rate is the lack of information regarding the etiology,
clinic consequences and immunologic effects of infection with
diarrheal agents in the immunocompromised host. Consequently we
conducted a survey in Senegal among HIV-seropositive and
HIV-seronegative subjects to identify major types and prevalence
of bacteria, parasite, fungi and Rotaviruses associated with
diarrhea in order to provide guidance to physicians for case
management. A new algorithm for the management of diarrhea
during HIV infection was developed, taking into account those
updated epidemiological data concerning etiologies and
antimicrobial susceptibility patterns. As E. coli was identified
as the major bacterial agent associated with diarrhea in the
immunocompromised host we have undertaken phenotypic and
genotypic characterization of different E.coli pathotypes
associated with diarrhea during HIV infection. The alarming
resistance rate to the most affordable antibiotics used in Dakar
(tetracycline, cotrimoxazole) was a justification of a recently
developed program concerning molecular epidemiology of genetic
element associated with antibiotic resistance, termed integron,
in enteropathogenic bacteria isolated in Senegal.
Prevention of enteric
infections was achieved though other projects:
Characterization of
emerging and reemerging enteric and foodborne pathogens in order
to identify risk factors for emergence of new pathogenic clones
or factors promoting antimicrobial resistance: characterization
of virulence factors and integrons
Role of food in
transmission of enteric pathogens
Public Health and
Routine activities
Our laboratory hosts the
Senegalese National Reference Center for Salmonella and Shigella.
The role of this center for the epidemiological surveillance of
Salmonella and Shigella (serotyping and determination of
antibiotic resistance pattern) is essential.
Training and Teaching
Many students are hosted in
the laboratory for various duration of stay (two weeks to
3 years) to prepare their master in sciences, thesis in Medecine
or Pharmacy, Ph.D. A post- graduate course on bacterial enteric
pathogens (Salmonella, Shigella, Escherichia coli, Campylobacter)
is given every two year. I’m also assistant Professor in
Microbiology at Dakar.
Now my activities are
directed towards the molecular epidemiology of enteric
bacteria.in Senegal, which was achieved through the following
projects :
Characterization of
integrons in enteric bacteria
Characterization of
virulence factors in enteric bacteria
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