Rwanda trial finds Ebola vaccine safe and effective in pregnancy
Vaccination during pregnancy can safely protect mothers and babies who are at high risk of death or severe illness from Ebola, according to a study carried out in in Rwanda and published in Nature Medicine.1
The researchers, led by Julien Nyombayire from the Rwanda Zambia Health Research Group, tested the two dose Ad26.ZEBOV, MVA-BN-Filo regimen found no unexpected safety issues, with strong immune responses in 90% of women a year after the first dose, while passing passive protective antibodies to their infants.
The study involved 2,012 women, comparing outcomes between those vaccinated during pregnancy and those vaccinated after pregnancy.
Hidden complexity of malaria infections in Ghana
In regions with high transmission, malaria infections are more complex than previously thought, especially among people who are asymptomatic, but act as significant reservoirs of malaria, a new study published in Communications Medicine2 has found.
Most epidemiological surveys of malaria are based on small blood samples. To test whether mixed species and mixed strain infections were undetected, an international team including researchers from Navrongo Health Research Centre in Ghana, examined larger blood volumes from 188 residents in a high-transmission region in northern Ghana and conducted genetic analyses to determine the variety of malaria parasites present.
They found many individuals carried multiple species and strains of Plasmodium simultaneously, including P. falciparum, P. malariae, and two forms of P. ovale with some carrying double or triple-species infections and additional variation within each parasite type. Some individuals were carrying between 10 and 23 distinct antigenic strains of P. falciparum. Such highly complex infections were undetected in smaller blood samples, leading the researchers to conclude that current prevalence may be underestimated.
New high-resolution maps track maize cultivation in Africa
Researchers from Egypt and China have created detailed maps of maize farming across Africa, a step forward to strengthen food security amidst climate change.
The high-resolution maps, produced at 10 metre resolution, cover the 2023–2024 growing season, giving extraordinary view of where and how maize is cultivated. The researchers used radar data and optical imagery to solve the challenge of frequent cloud cover, patchwork landscapes, and limited on-the-ground data that hampers efforts to monitor crops in Africa.
In their study published in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment3 they estimate that maize covers 44.1 million hectares across Africa, with West Africa accounting for the largest share, a third. Although strongly aligned with national agricultural statistics, the data showed differences in yields, field sizes, and cropping patterns and could transform crop monitoring and support food system planning.
Hidden infrastructure deficits in sub-Saharan Africa
For many decades, efforts to track sustainable development in Africa have relied on coarse national statistics on poverty and quality of life that often obscure local realities.
A new study in Nature4 unravels the hidden geography of poverty and infrastructure gaps across Sub-Saharan Africa, using building-level data to map development in detail.
Researchers compiled data from over 415 million buildings in 9.8 million street blocks across 50 countries and 2,190 urban areas in sub-Saharan Africa, plus rural/peri-urban settlements. The comprehensive, high-precision dataset of the footprints of buildings across sub-Saharan Africa, detected infrastructure deficits, for approximately 550 million people.
The study links physical measures of informality with indicators of deprivation, from limited street access to reduced quality of life. The findings could help governments, planners, and aid agencies targeting infrastructure investments, to accelerate equitable development.
African catfish restoration cuts snail hosts and Schistosomiasis infections
Restoring native African catfish, Clarias gariepinus, in Lake Victoria is an effective biological control for the snails that host Schistosoma mansoni, the parasite responsible for intestinal schistosomiasis, a study in Tanzania has shown.
With limited evidence on effectiveness of natural predators in reducing snail abundance and transmission risk to humans, the researchers from the United Kingdom, Uganda and Tanzania tested whether the restoration of African catfish would reduce snail vectors. Using an intervention design across seven lakeshore communities in Tanzania between 2019 and 2023, the researchers reintroduced catfish into three sites and compared them with four control sites. They tracked both snail populations (Biomphalaria species, the intermediate hosts) and infection levels in children. In PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases5 they report a 57% reduction in snail populations and a 55% decline in infection intensity among children.
