Thiéry Ndong Mba¹,²,³✉
, Hilaire Moundounga Kenguele¹ and Brice Arnaud Pambo-Pambo4
¹Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Biology (LABMC), University of Science and Technology of Masuku (USTM), Franceville, Gabon
²Medical analysis laboratory of the Omar Bongo Ondimba regional hospital of Makokou, Gabon
³Laboratory of Research in Biochemistry (LAREBIO), University of Sciences and Techniques of Masuku (USTM) Franceville, Gabon
4Laboratory of Animal Physiology, University of Science and Technology of Masuku (USTM), Franceville, Gabon
Received: Mar 1, 2023/ Revised: Mar 29, 2023/ Accepted: Mar 30, 2023
(✉) Corresponding Author: tndongmb2021@gmail.com
Abstract
Despite the observation of a considerable decrease in the number of cases of COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) in the world, this pandemic whose causal agent has been identified as Sars-CoV-2 remains to this day a threat to world health. In the framework of a permanent health monitoring of this disease, this study was undertaken to evaluate the seroprevalence of this disease among people seen at the Omar Bongo Ondimba regional hospital of Makokou, in the province of Ogooué-Ivindo, in Eastern- North Gabon. This descriptive cross-sectional study, whose data were collected prospectively, took place from 18 September 2021 to 18 February 2022. It enrolled persons of all ages and sexes who came to the laboratory of the Omar Bongo Ondimba regional hospital of Makokou, to be tested for COVID-19. The screening technique used was the molecular RT-qPCR test. Out of a total of 168 patients tested, the presence of the virus was identified in 27 samples, i.e. a prevalence of 16.07%. With a percentage of 96.30%, the most affected locality was that of Makokou, the capital of the Ogooué-Ivindo province. With 25% of positivity, and according to the statistical test, women were much more infected than men (p=0.04; OR = 2.5). Residing in an urban locality (Makokou) was a risk factor for Sars-Cov-2 infection. Although no age group was found to be a risk factor, the age group between 25 and 65 years was the most affected by the disease. Thanks to the implementation of the molecular diagnosis of Sars-CoV-2, the persons received at the Omar Bongo Ondimba regional hospital of Makokou, in the province of Ogooué-Ivindo, in Eastern- North Gabon, were able to benefit from a rapid and efficient diagnostic tool, which can help to detect the disease rapidly.
Keywords: Sars-coV-2, Covid-19, RT-qPCR, Omar Bongo Ondimba regional hospital Makokou, Ogooué-Ivindo, Gabon.
References
Amir, I. J., Lebar, Z., & Mahmoud, M. (2020). Covid-19: virologie, épidémiologie et diagnostic biologique. Option/Bio, 31(619), 15.
Bradshaw, D., Dorrington, R., Laubscher, R., Groenewald, P., & Moultrie, T. (2022). COVID-19 and all-cause mortality in South Africa-the hidden deaths in the first four waves. South African Journal of Science, 118(5-6), 1-7.
Covid-19 – Epidemiological bulletin. may 30, 2020. the belgian health institute sciensano, as part of its surveillance missions, is analyzing the data reported cases in sciensano as of may 29, 2020, at 4 pm.
Gattinoni, L., Chiumello, D., Caironi, P., Busana, M., Romitti, F., Brazzi, L., & Camporota, L. (2020). COVID-19 pneumonia: different respiratory treatments for different phenotypes?. Intensive care medicine, 46, 1099-1102.
Hervé Ratel, “Covid-19: the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus mutates. What does it mean?”, Sciences et avenir, March 4, 2020, at: sciencesetavenir.fr.
Huang, C., Wang, Y., Li, X., Ren, L., Zhao, J., Hu, Y. & Cao, B. (2020). Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. The lancet, 395(10223), 497-506.
Italy’s national public health agency, 2020.
Ketfi, A., Chabati, O., Chemali, S., Mahjoub, M., Gharnaout, M., Touahri, R., Djenouhat, K., Selatni, F. and Ben-Saad, H. (2020). Clinical, biological and radiological profile of Algerian patients hospitalized for COVID-19 Pan African Medical Journal.
LCI Editorial Board – Published on April 10, 2020 at 1:30 p.m., updated on April 10, 2020 at 1:40 p.m. Why are men more affected by Covid-19 than women?
Louhaichi, S., Allouche, A., Baili, H., Jrad, S., Radhouani, A., Greb, D. & Hamzaoui, A. (2020). Features of patients with 2019 novel coronavirus admitted in a pneumology department: The first retrospective Tunisian case series. La tunisie médicale, 98(4), 261-265.
Mosites, E., Parker, E. M., Clarke, K. E., Gaeta, J. M., Baggett, T. P., Imbert, E. & Stoltey, J. (2020). Assessment of the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in homeless shelters – four US cities, March 27-April 15, 2020. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 69(17), 521.
Nguyen, T., Duong Bang, D., & Wolff, A. (2020). 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19): paving the road for rapid detection and point-of-care diagnostics. Micromachines, 11(3), 306.
Our World in Data and JHU CSSE COVID-19 Data ; 2022. Koula-Moutou, Lolo-Bouenguidi, Ogooué-Lolo, Gabon – DB-City: All the information on countries, regions, cities and villages.
Pollán, M., Pérez-Gómez, B., Pastor-Barriuso, R., Oteo, J., Hernán, M. A., Pérez-Olmeda, M., … & de la Villa, A. V. (2020). Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in Spain (ENE-COVID): a nationwide, population-based seroepidemiological study. The Lancet, 396(10250), 535-544.
Publique Health France 2020.
Rai, P., Kumar, B. K., Deekshit, V. K., Karunasagar, I., & Karunasagar, I. (2021). Detection technologies and recent developments in the diagnosis of COVID-19 infection. Applied microbiology and biotechnology, 105, 441-455.
Rocha, L. E., Thorson, A. E., & Lambiotte, R. (2015). The non-linear health consequences of living in larger cities. Journal of Urban Health, 92, 785-799.
Taylor, L. (2022). Covid-19: True global death toll from pandemic is almost 15 million, says WHO. BMJ: British Medical Journal (Online), 377, o1144.
Vakili, S., Savardashtaki, A., Jamalnia, S., Tabrizi, R., Nematollahi, M. H., Jafarinia, M., & Akbari, H. (2020). Laboratory findings of COVID-19 infection are conflicting in different age groups and pregnant women: a literature review. Archives of medical research, 51(7), 603-607.
Wadman, M., Couzin-Frankel, J., Kaiser, J., & Matacic, C. (2020). A rampage through the body.
Xia, S., Zhu, Y., Liu, M., Lan, Q., Xu, W., Wu, Y. & Lu, L. (2020). Fusion mechanism of 2019-nCoV and fusion inhibitors targeting HR1 domain in spike protein. Cellular & molecular immunology, 17(7), 765-767.
How to cite this article
Mba, T. N., Kenguele, H. M. and Pambo-Pambo, B. A. (2023). Molecular seroprevalence of Sars-CoV-2 among people seen at the Omar Bongo Ondimba regional hospital of Makokou, in the province of Ogooué-Ivindo, in Eastern- North Gabon. Science Archives, Vol. 4(1), 53-58. https://doi.org/10.47587/SA.2023.4109
License Article Metadata
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
