Three outbreaks of meningitis caused by Neisseria meningitidis serogroup A (subgroup III) are described: Niger (1991), Burundi (1992), and Guinea (1993).
A total of 125 strains of Neisseria meningitidis recovered in the course of outbreaks from patients with systemic disease in 11 African countries between 1989 and 1994 were analysed by serogrouping, serotyping and multilocus enzyme electrophoresis.
The flight of 500,000-800,000 Rwandan refugees into the North Kivu region of Zaire in July, 1994, overwhelmed the world's response capacity.
In Burundi (1990 population: 5.7 million), located in central-east Africa, seasonal epidemics of dysentery caused by Shigella dysenteriae type 1 (Sd1) have been documented each year since 1980.
The seeds and roots of Heliotropium lasocarpium, contain a pyrrolizidine alkaloid which causes toxic liver injury and veno-occlusive disease (VOD), characterised by an occlusive lesion of the centrolobular veins of the liver, when consumed by humans.
Since 1988, the french non-governmental organisation Médecins Sans Frontières is running a control program of human african trypanosomiasis in the district of Moyo, North-Uganda.
A new outbreak of trichinellosis occurred in France in December 1993 and involved around 550 patients. The authors report here how recent knowledge on Trichinella have been helpful to investigate this outbreak.
