Summary of your 'study carrel' ============================== This is a summary of your Distant Reader 'study carrel'. The Distant Reader harvested & cached your content into a collection/corpus. It then applied sets of natural language processing and text mining against the collection. The results of this process was reduced to a database file -- a 'study carrel'. The study carrel can then be queried, thus bringing light specific characteristics for your collection. These characteristics can help you summarize the collection as well as enumerate things you might want to investigate more closely. This report is a terse narrative report, and when processing is complete you will be linked to a more complete narrative report. Eric Lease Morgan Number of items in the collection; 'How big is my corpus?' ---------------------------------------------------------- 48 Average length of all items measured in words; "More or less, how big is each item?" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7355 Average readability score of all items (0 = difficult; 100 = easy) ------------------------------------------------------------------ 46 Top 50 statistically significant keywords; "What is my collection about?" ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 46 african 10 COVID-19 6 ASFV 5 american 4 west 4 Ebola 3 population 3 patient 3 SARS 3 RNA 3 Americans 2 virus 2 need 2 drug 2 disease 2 datum 2 covid-19 2 child 2 Fig 2 African 1 year 1 woman 1 wild 1 vaccine 1 urban 1 treatment 1 transmission 1 table 1 study 1 social 1 severe 1 session 1 service 1 seq 1 sapovirus 1 risk 1 result 1 research 1 replication 1 protein 1 program 1 poster 1 pictus 1 participant 1 mouth 1 method 1 meeting 1 medicine 1 masked 1 malaria Top 50 lemmatized nouns; "What is discussed?" --------------------------------------------- 1584 health 1549 virus 1172 % 1104 study 925 disease 825 protein 763 population 750 patient 743 infection 673 cell 660 care 648 community 596 datum 595 case 516 analysis 506 gene 503 country 480 child 463 result 452 group 448 risk 427 level 411 factor 395 service 383 sequence 380 research 377 year 373 treatment 371 time 369 region 367 woman 357 system 357 replication 346 outbreak 346 method 336 response 333 intervention 331 number 328 site 325 genome 314 rate 295 malaria 293 pandemic 291 need 289 sample 286 area 283 use 282 fever 275 model 272 value Top 50 proper nouns; "What are the names of persons or places?" -------------------------------------------------------------- 1231 al 993 et 945 . 409 Africa 401 COVID-19 354 Ebola 324 ASFV 299 Health 266 African 244 Americans 217 RNA 213 HIV 174 BAGV 173 SARS 172 EVD 157 Fig 155 C 135 • 119 South 115 AIDS 108 China 106 PCR 101 CoV-2 98 West 95 ER 92 United 91 World 84 NPC1 83 States 78 Table 76 sapovirus 76 Canada 73 Toronto 73 Human 71 II 71 EBOV 69 de 68 A 67 Community 66 National 65 m 65 SEP 65 CRC 63 US 63 Organization 63 New 63 Disease 63 American 61 EROI 60 WW Top 50 personal pronouns nouns; "To whom are things referred?" ------------------------------------------------------------- 786 it 756 we 406 they 144 them 107 i 39 us 39 he 30 themselves 17 one 12 you 11 itself 10 me 6 she 6 s 5 ourselves 2 her 1 sha 1 oneself 1 mg 1 himself 1 him 1 herself 1 em 1 clustalx Top 50 lemmatized verbs; "What do things do?" --------------------------------------------- 10248 be 2236 have 956 use 646 include 406 report 406 associate 402 provide 390 increase 383 show 382 base 377 do 356 identify 295 develop 288 require 271 make 261 compare 254 suggest 239 observe 235 consider 234 relate 230 infect 228 need 212 find 206 give 205 follow 191 present 187 contain 178 involve 177 improve 175 reduce 174 obtain 173 describe 173 conduct 171 cause 167 see 161 lead 158 result 158 affect 157 determine 156 take 155 know 154 assess 151 address 148 induce 147 live 143 remain 142 support 139 indicate 139 collect 137 examine Top 50 lemmatized adjectives and adverbs; "How are things described?" --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1388 african 999 not 689 high 648 other 645 also 643 - 579 such 535 more 512 human 492 viral 399 social 390 however 373 low 355 different 345 well 345 most 312 only 306 clinical 300 public 295 urban 280 american 277 many 268 genetic 259 non 250 specific 240 severe 240 positive 239 large 238 as 237 new 236 first 222 available 218 important 211 early 199 likely 196 infectious 191 medical 189 significant 179 covid-19 170 long 169 major 165 great 164 wild 161 similar 159 local 157 poor 154 further 153 less 152 traditional 150 several Top 50 lemmatized superlative adjectives; "How are things described to the extreme?" ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 123 most 78 high 74 good 59 least 36 Most 21 low 20 large 19 great 9 strong 6 bad 5 short 4 small 4 old 4 long 3 poor 3 near 3 big 2 full 2 deep 1 ~e 1 wide 1 wealthy 1 t.t 1 simple 1 rich 1 late 1 fit 1 few 1 fast 1 easy 1 early 1 cord-297103-f3jdbv47 1 close 1 busy 1 -5.72 Top 50 lemmatized superlative adverbs; "How do things do to the extreme?" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 222 most 46 least 12 well 3 hard 1 worst 1 highest 1 ecommendatio.ns 1 -biotin Top 50 Internet domains; "What Webbed places are alluded to in this corpus?" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 doi.org 2 orcid.org 2 datamonkey.org 2 beast.community 1 www.who.int 1 www.unacast.com 1 www.ukcds.org.uk 1 www.ohchr.org 1 www.nature.com 1 www.microbesonline.org 1 www.megasoftware.net 1 www.mdpi.com 1 www.drive5.com 1 www.cbs.dtu.dk 1 www.alabamapublichealth.gov 1 ugene.net 1 uceedumy.sharepoint.com 1 tree.bio.ed.ac.uk 1 thenounproject.com 1 rna.tbi.univie.ac.at 1 python.org 1 primerexplorer.jp 1 opal.biology.gatech.edu 1 msdh.ms.gov 1 ldh.la.gov 1 indra.mullins.microbiol.washington.edu 1 github.com 1 genomes.urv.es 1 en.wikipedia 1 ebolaclinicaltrials.tghn.org 1 dx.doi.org 1 dph.georgia.gov 1 creativecommons 1 clinicaltrials.gov 1 beast.bio.ed.ac.uk 1 apps.who.int Top 50 URLs; "What is hyperlinked from this corpus?" ---------------------------------------------------- 5 http://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.08.20124297 1 http://www.who.int/medicines/ebola-treatment/emp_ebola_therapies/en/ 1 http://www.unacast.com/covid19/social-distancing-scoreboard 1 http://www.ukcds.org.uk/resources/ebola-research-database 1 http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Education/Training/Compilation/Pages/5 1 http://www.nature.com/ 1 http://www.microbesonline.org/fasttree/ 1 http://www.megasoftware.net/ 1 http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/10/4/193/s1 1 http://www.drive5.com/muscle/ 1 http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/ 1 http://www.alabamapublichealth.gov/covid19/assets/cov-al-cases-042820.pdf 1 http://ugene.net/download.html 1 http://uceedumy.sharepoint.com/personal/wgchiriboga_uce_edu_ec/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx? 1 http://tree.bio.ed.ac.uk/software/figtree/ 1 http://thenounproject.com 1 http://rna.tbi.univie.ac.at/ 1 http://python.org 1 http://primerexplorer.jp/e/ 1 http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4510-9774 1 http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8126-8580 1 http://opal.biology.gatech.edu/ 1 http://msdh.ms.gov/msdhsite/_static/14,0,420.html 1 http://ldh.la.gov/coronavirus/ 1 http://indra.mullins.microbiol.washington.edu/DIVEIN/ 1 http://github.com/ 1 http://genomes.urv.es/CAIcal/ 1 http://en.wikipedia 1 http://ebolaclinicaltrials.tghn.org 1 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.11785.001 1 http://dph.georgia.gov/covid-19-daily-status-report 1 http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236240.g004 1 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetmic.2019.08.003 1 http://datamonkey.org/ 1 http://datamonkey.org 1 http://creativecommons 1 http://clinicaltrials.gov 1 http://beast.community/treeannotator 1 http://beast.community/ 1 http://beast.bio.ed.ac.uk/Tracer 1 http://apps.who.int/whocc/Detail.aspx?cc_ref=SEN-5&cc_code=sen Top 50 email addresses; "Who are you gonna call?" ------------------------------------------------- 1 anyika@amanet-trust.org Top 50 positive assertions; "What sentences are in the shape of noun-verb-noun?" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 patients were more 4 population is about 4 studies have already 4 studies have also 4 virus infected feces 3 % were women 3 countries including uganda 3 covid-19 are not 3 data were not 3 infection does not 3 infection was not 3 patients are not 3 patients did not 3 proteins do not 3 risk is further 2 % had bp 2 % had family 2 % increased odds 2 % were male 2 % were married 2 % were not 2 analysis is underway 2 analysis showed also 2 analysis using parsimony 2 analysis was also 2 children were more 2 community based organizations 2 community based research 2 covid-19 is not 2 data do not 2 data presenting score 2 health related hardships 2 infection has quickly 2 infection involves retrograde 2 patients requiring icu 2 patients requiring intensive 2 patients were also 2 population do not 2 population is critical 2 protein is highly 2 result is positive 2 results do not 2 studies did not 2 studies reported modest 2 studies using experimental 2 studies were efficacy 2 study did not 2 study has several 2 virus is still 1 % had 1dutch Top 50 negative assertions; "What sentences are in the shape of noun-verb-no|not-noun?" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 % had no special 1 % were not satisfied 1 analysis was not possible 1 care do not effectively 1 care is not as 1 case is not easily 1 cells is not necessary 1 child is not yet 1 children is not possible 1 countries is not widely 1 country is not yet 1 covid-19 are not recoverable 1 covid-19 is not only 1 covid-19 is not practicable 1 data are not consistently 1 data were not systematically 1 disease were no longer 1 group were not significantly 1 infection have not yet 1 infection was not completely 1 infection was not significantly 1 levels does not only 1 patients did not regularly 1 patients had no effect 1 population has no immunity 1 results are not comparable 1 risk was not attributable 1 study showed no difference A rudimentary bibliography -------------------------- id = cord-349786-12lc3342 author = Acquah, Samuel title = Implications of COVID-19 Pandemic on Evolution of Diabetes in Malaria-Endemic African Region date = 2020-10-08 keywords = ACE2; COVID-19; african summary = Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) which is widely distributed in the human body is implicated in the pathogenesis of malaria, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and COVID-19. With the continent already responsible for over 93% of global malaria burden and associated deaths in 2018 [6] , the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic does not only increase the infectious disease burden of the African region but could serve as another risk factor to the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in the region. Just like other known coronaviruses [14, 15] , the acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, requires a specific receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), for entry into host cells [16] [17] [18] [19] . To this end, the COVID-19 virus, which reduces ACE2 levels or activities, can potentiate infected individuals for future development of T2DM through low-grade inflammation and insulin resistance. doi = 10.1155/2020/8205261 id = cord-273275-f7rbn88x author = Alkhatib, Ala L. title = BMI is Associated with Coronavirus Disease 2019 Intensive Care Unit Admission in African Americans date = 2020-08-04 keywords = african; american summary = This study aims to identify the risk factors for severe COVID‐19 disease in African American patients. CONCLUSIONS: This study identified risk factors for severe disease in COVID‐19, specifically in an African American population. ► Major health disparities have been identified in the COVID-19 epidemic within the United States, and this is one of the first studies to focus specifically on the risk factors within an African American population, a community that has been disproportionately impacted by this disease. In this study, we aim to describe the baseline characteristics of laboratoryconfirmed COVID-19-positive African American patients and determine the possible risk factors, including BMI, for the development of severe disease and admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). In this retrospective observational cross-sectional study, we found that age, higher BMI, and obstructive lung disease were associated with severe COVID-19 in an African American population. doi = 10.1002/oby.22937 id = cord-102874-6z5f2gz3 author = Barreiro, Luis B. title = The Heritage of Pathogen Pressures and Ancient Demography in the Human Innate-Immunity CD209/CD209L Region date = 2005-11-30 keywords = african; cd209 summary = Our results, which are based on diversity levels, neutrality tests, population genetic distances, and neck-region length variation, provide genetic evidence that CD209 has been under a strong selective constraint that prevents accumulation of any amino acid changes, whereas CD209L variability has most likely been shaped by the action of balancing selection in non-African populations. Sequence variation of the CD209/CD209L region was determined in 41 sub-Saharan Africans, 43 Europeans, and 43 East Asians, in a total of 254 chromosomes from the Human Genome Diversity Panel (HGDP)-CEPH panel ). To estimate Ϫ4 8 # 10 the substitution rate of each region and evince possible mutational differences that could explain the strong contrast observed in nucleotide-diversity patterns, we determined the human-chimpanzee divergence for both genes. Overall, differences in genomic forces seem to be insufficient to explain the contrasting patterns observed at both the sequence and neck-region length variation levels; therefore, the action of differential selective pressures acting on these genes becomes the most plausible scenario. doi = 10.1086/497613 id = cord-266027-1xrq8cg9 author = Barrington, Debbie S. title = Socioeconomic Correlates of Obesity in African-American and Caribbean-Black Men and Women date = 2020-07-04 keywords = african; american; black summary = Covariates utilized for statistical adjustment due to their known associations with SEP and obesity include demographic variables such as age [5] , categorized into less than or equal to 29 years, 30-44 years, 45-59 years, and 60 or more years; marital status, [24] characterized as (1) married or living with a partner, (2) separated, divorced or widowed, and (3) never married; and three measures of health behaviors, (1) physical activity [22] , a continuous measure based on how often the study participants worked in the garden or yard, engaged in active sports or exercise, and walked, (2) smoking status [25] , specified as the participant never having smoked more than 100 cigarettes in his/her lifetime or "never smoker," having smoked more than 100 cigarettes in the past or "past smoker," and "current smoker," and (3) current alcohol consumption [22] , categorized for analytical purposes into consuming no alcoholic drinks within the past year or "none," having consumed less than 12 drinks within the past year, or "infrequent drinker," and moderate-to-heavy drinkers having consumed 12 or more drinks within the past year or "regular drinker." To minimize bias due to differentially distributed missing data on measures of SEP and BMI by ethnicity (African-American and Caribbean-Black) and sex, multiple imputation was performed prior to statistical analysis within the statistical software package IVEware [26] . doi = 10.1007/s40615-020-00798-4 id = cord-310315-w4rgjsbl author = Belhadi, Amine title = Infectious Waste Management Strategy during COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa: an Integrated Decision-Making Framework for Selecting Sustainable Technologies date = 2020-10-23 keywords = COVID-19; IVF; african summary = In seeking the answers to the above RQs considering the criticality of the infectious municipal WM generated during the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper contributes to the development of a WM strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic by proposing a combined life-cycle assessment (LCA), life-cycle cost (LCC) analysis, and AHP-VIKOR method to select a WM treatment technology under the effect of IVF environment. The significant selection of the most suitable treatment technologies for the infectious SW and WW during the COVID-19 pandemic is a complex MCDM problem that implies consideration of multiple numbers of alternatives and evaluation criteria (Wang et al. To help decision-makers in the African context ascertain the current challenges of municipal WM and devise a suitable infectious waste treatment plan, a combined AHP and VIKOR method under the IVF environment is proposed to evaluate and prioritize the infectious SW and WW alternatives from an LCC-LCA perspective. doi = 10.1007/s00267-020-01375-5 id = cord-311423-8yvu9xhw author = Betson, D. N. title = Disproportionate COVID-19 Related Mortality Amongst African Americans in Four Southern States in the United States date = 2020-06-12 keywords = african summary = Methodology This short communication queried the publicly available Department of Health statistics on COVID-19 related mortality and underlying health conditions in four southern states (Alabama [AL], Georgia [GA], Louisiana [LA] and Mississippi [MS]) with a high proportion of African American residents. Second, unacast COVID-19 toolkit was used to derive a social distancing (SD) grade for any given state, based on three different metrics: (i) percent change in average distance travelled (ii) percent change in non-essential visits and (iii) decrease in human encounters (compared to national baseline). Second, unacast COVID-19 toolkit was used to derive a social distancing (SD) grade for any given state, based on three different metrics: (i) percent change in average distance travelled (ii) percent change in nonessential visits and (iii) decrease in human encounters (compared to national baseline). We queried the publicly available Department of Health (DOH) statistics on COVID-19 related mortality in four southern states (Alabama [AL], Georgia [GA], Louisiana [LA] and Mississippi [MS]) with a high proportion of African American residents. doi = 10.1101/2020.06.08.20124297 id = cord-031316-yvid6qps author = Bisimwa, Patrick N. title = First detection of African swine fever (ASF) virus genotype X and serogroup 7 in symptomatic pigs in the Democratic Republic of Congo date = 2020-09-03 keywords = ASFV; Kivu; South; african summary = Sequences of p72 and p54 amplicon were compared with 25 other p72 and p54 ASFV sequences retrieved from the Gen-Bank database and the phylogenetic analysis revealed that the South Kivu ASF virus strains analyzed clustered with p72 genotype X including strains reported in previous studies in Burundi (AF449463), Kenya (AY261360) and Tanzania (JX403648, AF301546, MF437291) ( Fig. 2a and b) . Sequences of African swine fever virus (ASFV) strains from the South Kivu province, eastern DRC, showing tetrameric repeats of representative genotypes, including a reference sequence of a virus isolated in 1950 in Kenya (Kenya 1950; GenBank accession no. doi = 10.1186/s12985-020-01398-8 id = cord-030370-89n13hml author = Brown, Colin S. title = Ebola Virus Disease in the Obstetric Population date = 2019-04-11 keywords = EVD; Ebola; Leone; Red; Sierra; Zone; african; patient; west summary = Epidemiological factors Considerations for screening for general populations Early: fever, profound weakness or malaise, headache, myalgia, arthralgia, conjunctivitis, nausea or anorexia, throat pain or difficulty swallowing, abdominal or epigastric pain, diarrhea (bloody or nonbloody) Exposure/Contact: infected animals, bushmeat or fruit also fed on by bats, healthcare workers/ traditional healers also treating EVD, items soiled or touched by positive EVD patient, deceased EVD bodies Sexual intercourse with EVD-positive male or EVD survivor Late: confusion and irritability, hiccups, seizures, chest pain, diarrhea (watery or bloody), vomiting (with or without blood), skin rash, internal or external bleeding, shock, respiratory distress Additional considerations for screening obstetric population Vaginal bleeding of unknown origin, spontaneous abortion, premature labor and/or rupture of membranes, preterm labor, antepartum and postpartum hemorrhage, intrauterine fetal demise, stillbirth, loss of consciousness Exposure to products of conception or deceased fetus of EVD positive patient Being a pregnant woman with history of contact with confirmed EVD patient, recent EVD survivor with an intact pregnancy, newborn of an EVD positive mother, infant breastfed by a recent EVD positive mother WHO Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data [55] setting, women were often left untreated or were provided minimal intervention by frightened medical staff working in an overwhelmed, under resourced health care system in crisis. doi = 10.1007/978-3-319-94854-6_4 id = cord-342588-berrojmq author = Burri, Christian title = Sleeping Sickness at the Crossroads date = 2020-04-08 keywords = african; disease; drug; hat; treatment summary = The development of this orally active compound is described in detail in the papers of Neau et al., and Dickie et al., Fexinidazole received a positive scientific opinion from the European Medicines Agency for treatment of Gambiense HAT in late 2018, it was approved by the drug regulatory authority of the DRC and added to the WHO list of essential medicines in 2019, and the first official application in the DRC happened at the end of January 2020 on World NTD day in a public ceremony. In 2012, the World Health Organization, which has played an instrumental role in the control, set the goal for the elimination of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense (gHAT), as a public health problem for 2020 and for the total interruption of transmission to humans for 2030. doi = 10.3390/tropicalmed5020057 id = cord-331058-ou6vqp7n author = Chireh, Batholomew title = Leveraging best practices: protecting sub-Saharan African prison detainees amid COVID-19 date = 2020-06-24 keywords = african; covid-19 summary = The risk of infection and death from COVID-19 is higher among older prisoners with pre-existing health conditions especially in sub-Saharan African. These focus areas include 1) challenges of social distancing; 2) higher risk of severe infection and death; 3) difficulties health care systems may face in the case of COVID-19 surge; and 4) recommended solutions to prevent harm and preventing a public health catastrophe. Although prison conditions in the United States may be quite different from those of sub-Saharan African countries, this paper applies these focus areas to the African context and provides simple and immediate measures to proactively prevent the spread of COVID-19 among prisoners in the region. As stated earlier older prisoners and persons with underlying medical conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer are more likely to report severe infection and death in low-and middle-income countries [3] . doi = 10.11604/pamj.2020.36.121.24133 id = cord-304935-8gcmqh4e author = Chiriboga, Gonzalo title = Energy Return on Investment (EROI) and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of biofuels in Ecuador date = 2020-06-28 keywords = EROI; Ecuador; african; energy summary = Several issues have slowed the incorporation of biofuels into worldwide transportation, for example, competition with the food sector for the use of feedstocks (Ho et al., 2014) , the decrease in the calorific value due to the presence of oxygen (Oh et al., 2018) , stillage handling and disposal (Silva et al., 2011) , and the Energy Return on Investment (EROI) (Jessica G Lambert, Hall, Balogh, Gupta and Arnold, 2013) . First, the study developed an extensive survey of the different raw materials with energetic potential (Instituto Nacional de Preinversi on, 2014), namely agricultural and forestry crops with higher production records and yields, such as sugar cane, corn, wood, African palm (Figueroa de la Vega, 2008) , and pinion (Instituto Interamericano de Cooperaci on para la Agricultura, 2016). Hence, statistical tools and case studies are needed to determine the relationship between the energy consumption "dependent variable" and the raw material "independent variable." For biofuels production, this information allows the construction of four scenarios with different levels of corn, wood, fat, and African palm designated. doi = 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04213 id = cord-001274-vz0qvp01 author = Chitray, M. title = Genetic heterogeneity in the leader and P1-coding regions of foot-and-mouth disease virus serotypes A and O in Africa date = 2013-11-13 keywords = FMDV; african; mouth summary = For this study, the L and P1 coding regions for eight FMDV A and nine FMDV O viruses isolated between 1975 and 2003 were successfully sequenced and analysed using phylogenetic analysis, examination of sequence variability, and identification of highly conserved genomic regions relating to previously identified FMDV functional and structural biological capabilities. The sub-Saharan African isolates included in this study belong to different topotypes of FMDV serotypes A and O as defined by 1D sequencing and represent a broad geographical distribution of viruses within East and West Africa. Characterising sequence variation in the VP1 capsid proteins of foot-and-mouth disease virus (serotype O) with the respect to virion structure Sequence analysis of monoclonal antibody resistant mutants of type O foot and mouth disease virus: evidence for the involvement of the three surface exposed capsid proteins in four antigenic sites doi = 10.1007/s00705-013-1838-9 id = cord-018764-02l423mk author = Clark, Ian A. title = The molecular basis of paediatric malarial disease date = 2007 keywords = Plasmodium; TNF; african; falciparum; malaria; severe summary = The influence of inflammatory cytokines on cellular function offers a molecular framework to explain the multiple clinical syndromes that are observed during acute malarial illness, and provides a fresh avenue of investigation for adjunct therapies to ameliorate the malarial disease process. The presence of hyperlactataemia, hypoglycaemia, and metabolic acidosis, all three consistent with a patient being forced to rely on anaerobic glycolysis for energy production, have provided a consensus that hypoxia is central to disease pathogenesis in falciparum malaria. Another inflammatory cytokine, macrophage inhibitory factor (MIF) that is increased in malaria, and induced by TNF, has been shown to cause dyserythropoiesis in in vitro studies on bone marrow cells [95, 96] . Although the sepsis world now discusses several origins for the lactate increase, including inflammation-induced mitochondrial dysfunction [97] , in falciparum malaria it is still generally attributed to a reduced oxygen supply, mostly through microvascular occlusion by sequestered parasitised erythrocytes [121] . doi = 10.1007/978-3-7643-8099-1_9 id = cord-323966-vj9za3cx author = Collier, Karole T. title = COVID 19: Surgery & the question of race date = 2020-05-20 keywords = COVID-19; african summary = These factors work synergistically with poor social determinants of health to increase vulnerability to COVID-19 and result in egregious disparities in infection rates and morbidity/mortality. In this moment, our response to African American COVID disparities is critical and signifies our call to action for all vulnerable populations affected. As AIDS spread across the U.S., it exposed structural vulnerability within African American communities and the ways in which poor pre-existing health infrastructure contributed to outcome disparities. 3 The AIDS epidemic is the only modern day health crisis we can compare to COVID-19; its lessons require us to have truthful reflection and discussion regarding our progress with disparities and the associations of race with health outcomes. Shortly before our nation had its first surge of COVID-19 patients, the American College of Surgeons published a perspective piece with a specific call to action in addressing disparities and surgical access. doi = 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2020.05.026 id = cord-343962-12t247bn author = Cori, Anne title = Key data for outbreak evaluation: building on the Ebola experience date = 2017-05-26 keywords = Ebola; african; case; datum; west summary = Here we build on experience gained in the West African Ebola epidemic and prior emerging infectious disease outbreaks to set out a checklist of data needed to: (1) quantify severity and transmissibility; (2) characterize heterogeneities in transmission and their determinants; and (3) assess the effectiveness of different interventions. Dynamic transmission models, which account for saturation effects, can be used to assess the long-term impact of the outbreak such as predicting the timing and magnitude of the epidemic peak or the attack rate (final proportion of population infected) [39, 40] . Estimates of the secondary attack rate have been obtained for the West African Ebola epidemic by reconstructing household data based on information reported by cases, in particular, as part of contact-tracing activities [86, 87] . Such data were widely used during the West African Ebola epidemic to quantify the risk of international spread of the disease, and to assess the potential impact of airport screening and travel restrictions on the outbreak [9,94 -96] . doi = 10.1098/rstb.2016.0371 id = cord-301856-71syce4n author = Domínguez-Andrés, Jorge title = Impact of Historic Migrations and Evolutionary Processes on Human Immunity date = 2019-11-27 keywords = african; disease; european; genetic; human; population summary = With the burst of next-generation sequencing and the development of cutting-edge technologies such as transcriptomics, proteomics, and systems biology, we are starting to witness the great impact of evolutionary processes on human immunity and how the interactions between microorganisms and humans that took place millennia ago might play a fundamental role not only in the response against modern pathogenic threats, but also in the emergence of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases observed in modern populations worldwide. Specific genetic variants selected throughout different periods of human history may have influenced immune responses of present-day populations against pathogenic microorganisms and may have played a role in the development of certain inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Patients with African ancestry present a higher frequency of MTB-related genetic variants than individuals from other populations, including variants in the gene encoding for Toll-like receptor 6 (TLR6), mediating cellular responses to bacterial Malaria is one of the greatest causes of morbidity and mortality in the history of humanity. doi = 10.1016/j.it.2019.10.001 id = cord-319706-2e9jrv0s author = Ebinger, Joseph E. title = Pre-existing traits associated with Covid-19 illness severity date = 2020-07-23 keywords = SARS; african; covid-19; patient summary = For all patients considered to have Covid-19, based on direct or documented laboratory test result and suggestive signs and/or symptoms, we obtained information from the electronic health record (EHR) and verified data for the following demographic and clinical characteristics: age at the time of diagnosis; sex; race; ethnicity; smoking status defined as current versus prior, never, or unknown; comorbidities, including obesity, as clinically assessed and documented by a provider with ICD-10 coding; and, chronic use of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) medications. For the primary outcome of illness severity, categorized by escalating levels of care (i.e., hospitalization, intensive care, intubation), the pre-existing characteristics that demonstrated statistical significance in age-and sex-adjusted models included older age, male sex, African American race, obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and the Elixhauser comorbidity score ( Table 2 ; Fig 3) . doi = 10.1371/journal.pone.0236240 id = cord-002994-1zjrunzc author = Faye, Martin title = Full-Genome Characterization and Genetic Evolution of West African Isolates of Bagaza Virus date = 2018-04-13 keywords = BAGV; CAI; RNA; UTR; african; isolate; west summary = Based on these alignments, we investigated the genetic properties of these different isolates circulating in West Africa, such as genome length and location of main conserved amino acid motifs previously described in mosquito-borne flaviviruses (MBFVs) with sometimes mutations which include no physicochemical properties changes [3] . The RNAz method [21] implemented in the Vienna RNA Websuite (http://rna.tbi.univie.ac.at/) [22] was used to detect thermodynamically stable and evolutionarily conserved structural RNA domains on complete non-coding regions of the 11 West African BAGV isolates characterized in this study and the isolates from Spain and CAR, because complete non-coding sequences are not currently available for the isolate from India. Here, we described location of main conserved amino acid motifs on BAGV proteins using in silico analysis of complete genome sequences of the 11 West African BAGV isolates characterized in this study and sequences from India, CAR and Spain. doi = 10.3390/v10040193 id = cord-312183-zkoj5d8c author = Frydman, Galit H. title = Coagulation Status and Venous Thromboembolism Risk in African Americans: A Potential Risk Factor in COVID-19 date = 2020-07-24 keywords = Americans; COVID-19; african; risk summary = Recent studies have shown severe pulmonary and cardiac pathology, associated with increased thrombosis, is prevalent in African Americans with severe COVID-19. 65 Although clinical SCD is only present in an estimated 100 000 patients in the United States, the sickle cell trait is present in up to 8% of the African American population, with SCD flagged as an important risk factor for VTE. 87, 88 Among the population of African Americans who are infected with COVID-19, some of these patients may already reside in a prothrombotic state prior to COVID-19 because of higher baseline concentrations of FVIII, vWF, and D-dimer, as well as increased platelet activation. Coupled with the higher rate of preexisting conditions that predispose patients to higher rates of COVID-19 and disease, and the lower rate of therapeutic anticoagulation even when warranted, variation in coagulation status may be one of the factors that puts African Americans at higher risk. doi = 10.1177/1076029620943671 id = cord-326027-58whwspe author = Hernaez, Bruno title = Visualization of the African swine fever virus infection in living cells by incorporation into the virus particle of green fluorescent protein-p54 membrane protein chimera date = 2006-06-20 keywords = ASFV; B54GFP-2; african; cell; virus summary = title: Visualization of the African swine fever virus infection in living cells by incorporation into the virus particle of green fluorescent protein-p54 membrane protein chimera To track the behavior of African swine fever virus (ASFV) in the infected cells in real time, we produced an infectious recombinant ASFV (B54GFP-2) that expresses and incorporates into the virus particle a chimera of the p54 envelope protein fused to the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). To determine that protein p54, a major component of the external envelope of ASFV, fused to EGFP protein remains incorporated to the viral particle, BA71V and B54GFP-2 virions were Percoll purified and analyzed by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting using specific antibodies (Fig. 2a) . This new role for p54 in morphogenesis supports the selection of p54 as viral fusion protein and suggests that studies about p54-EGFP trafficking during infection in live cells would be helpful to analyze the acquisition of ASFV envelopes from ER during virus assembly. doi = 10.1016/j.virol.2006.01.021 id = cord-279011-arjzx85c author = Ibrahimi, Sahra title = COVID-19 Devastation of African American Families: Impact on Mental Health and the Consequence of Systemic Racism date = 2020-09-16 keywords = african summary = To our knowledge, no previous study has delineated inequities potentially incentivized by systemic racism, and whether synergistic effects impose an abnormally high burden of social determinants of mental health on African American families in the era of COVID-19 pandemic. In our model, we identified systemic racism to be the primary operator of mental health disparity, which disproportionately affects African American families at all levels of the SEM. No previous study has delineated inequities incentivized by systemic racism, and whether synergistic effects impose an abnormally high burden of social determinants of mental health on African American families in the era of COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we hypothesized systemic racism to be the primary operator of the mental health disparity, which disproportionately affects the psychological well-being of African American families at all levels of the socio-ecological model (SEM). • Systemic racism is the primary operator of mental health disparity, which disproportionately affects African American families at all levels of the social ecological model (SEM). doi = 10.21106/ijma.408 id = cord-256195-1hmzgwrw author = Izzy, Saef title = Characteristics and outcomes of Latinx patients with COVID-19 in comparison to other ethnic and racial groups date = 2020-09-01 keywords = COVID-19; african; american summary = 2 In the United States, where a racially and ethnically diverse population has been exposed to infection in the setting of known racial and ethnic health disparities, 14 several news reports have suggested that ethnic and racial minorities, especially Latinx and non-Latin African American individuals, may bear a higher burden of disease during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used medical records available from the largest not-for-profit healthcare system in Massachusetts to examine the association between age, race and ethnicity, reported preexisting comorbidities, and the need for hospitalization and ICU admission in a large study population of COVID-19 positive patients. First, analysis of our large study population confirmed our firsthand clinical experience and showed indeed that Latinx and African American patients are at higher risk of being hospitalized and admitted to ICU level of care with COVID-19, than White patients. doi = 10.1093/ofid/ofaa401 id = cord-276067-3io0xux2 author = Kanmounye, Ulrick Sidney title = COVID-19 and Neurosurgical Education in Africa: Making lemonade from lemons date = 2020-05-21 keywords = african summary = In the face of this new reality, and in order to limit the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic, multiple programs have implemented physical distancing which reduces in-person interactions. Herein, we detail the framework of an online neurosurgical education initiative to advance the education of African residents and young Neurosurgeons during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. initiative to advance the education of African residents and young Neurosurgeons during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. African residents and young neurosurgeons are already learning from and about world renowned neurosurgeons via online medical education platforms (3). In order to limit the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic, multiple programs have implemented physical distancing which reduces in-person interactions. Herein, we detail the framework of an online neurosurgical education initiative to advance the education of African residents during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Impact of COVID-19 on neurosurgery resident training and education doi = 10.1016/j.wneu.2020.05.126 id = cord-021655-ojfm5rt3 author = Langan, Jennifer N. title = Overview of African Wild Dog Medicine date = 2018-09-28 keywords = Lycaon; african; dog; pictus; wild summary = Seasonal changes in steroid hormone profiles, body weight, semen quality and the reproductive tract in captive African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) in South Africa Population analysis and breeding and transfer plan: african painted (wild) dog (Lycaon pictus) Monitoring stress in captive and free-ranging African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) using faecal glucocorticoid metabolites Studies of male reproduction in captive African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) Natural selection of the communal rearing of pups in African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) Canine distemper in African hunting dogs (Lycaon pictus) -possibly vaccine induced Vaccine-associated canine distemper infection in a litter of African hunting dogs (Lycaon pictus) Comparison of oral and intramuscular recombinant canine distemper vaccination in African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) Immunization and antibody persistence to canine distemper and rabies vaccination in captive african wild dogs (Lycaon pictus A survey of internal parasites in free-ranging African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus doi = 10.1016/b978-0-323-55228-8.00077-1 id = cord-297103-f3jdbv47 author = Longino, Kevin title = Racial and Ethnic Disparities, Kidney Disease, and COVID-19: A Call to Action date = 2020-07-21 keywords = african summary = It is incumbent upon all of us -as healthcare professionals, patients, and advocates -to confront racial and ethnic disparities and work together to ensure that all people with kidney disease receive nothing but the best care our system has to offer. Notably, severe COVID-19 has been associated with acute kidney injury (AKI), which can increase the risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) over time. In an effort to address these challenges, NKF is advocating for access to affordable healthcare, to increase our federal investment in research, prevention, and innovations in care for people with kidney disease, and to ensure that racial and ethnic communities are not left behind. This work is important, but it alone cannot solve the many health and socioeconomic disparities facing Black or African American and other minority communities, which are rooted in historical and ongoing systemic racism. doi = 10.1016/j.xkme.2020.07.001 id = cord-309327-eham6trt author = Lor, Aun title = Key Ethical Issues Discussed at CDC-Sponsored International, Regional Meetings to Explore Cultural Perspectives and Contexts on Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response date = 2016-05-17 keywords = african; asian; ethical; meeting; participant summary = Background: Recognizing the importance of having a broad exploration of how cultural perspectives may shape thinking about ethical considerations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded four regional meetings in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Eastern Mediterranean to explore these perspectives relevant to pandemic influenza preparedness and response. Methods: We reviewed the meeting reports, notes and stories and mapped outcomes to the key ethical challenges for pandemic influenza response described in the World Health Organization''s (WHO''s) guidance, Ethical Considerations in Developing a Public Health Response to Pandemic Influenza: transparency and public engagement, allocation of resources, social distancing, obligations to and of healthcare workers, and international collaboration. The key objectives for all four meetings were to: (1) identify culturalspecific ethical challenges in pandemic influenza detection and control, (2) explore approaches for addressing these ethical challenges, including how to best integrate ethical considerations into country/regional pandemic influenza preparedness and response guidelines and implementation strategies, and (3) begin establishing a social network to foster continued discussion about ethical issues in the practice of public health. doi = 10.15171/ijhpm.2016.55 id = cord-270425-1ughypnx author = Louis-Jean, James title = Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Racial Disparities: a Perspective Analysis date = 2020-10-06 keywords = African; Americans; COVID-19; USA summary = In the USA, health disparities among minority groups, especially African Americans, limit their access to quality medical care and other beneficial resources and services. Presently, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) highlights the extreme healthcare challenges that exist in the African American and other minority communities in the USA. This is a major concern that government and public health officials should address as it has been shown that in 21 out of 30 states reporting data, black people accounted for a higher share of COVID-19 cases than their share in the population [5] . Racial inequities in healthcare institutions, lack of access to information, higher levels of preventable chronic diseases (i.e., diabetes, asthmas, hypertension, etc.), and COVID-19 testing not being widely available in minority communities are among the many factors resulting in African Americans dying at disproportionate numbers during this pandemic [30] . doi = 10.1007/s40615-020-00879-4 id = cord-029480-3md13om6 author = Meix-Cereceda, Pablo title = Educational Values in Human Rights Treaties: UN, European, and African International Law date = 2020-07-21 keywords = ACHPR; African; Court; Human; Rights; child summary = -The original conception of law perceived not as a tool for personal defense, but as an opportunity given to all to survive under the protection of the order of the communal entity -Communalism which emphasizes group solidarity and interests generally, and all rules which sustain it, as opposed to individual interests, with its likely utility in building a sense of national unity among South Africans -The conciliatory character of the adjudication process which aims to restore peace and harmony between members rather than the adversarial approach which emphasizes retribution and seems repressive. 59 So far, it may be concluded that African instruments on human rights consider the very accessibility to school education as a key element for the first value that should guide education: the full development of the child''s personality. doi = 10.1007/s12142-020-00599-6 id = cord-322649-c99lszcu author = Miao, Faming title = Rapid and Sensitive Recombinase Polymerase Amplification Combined With Lateral Flow Strip for Detecting African Swine Fever Virus date = 2019-05-15 keywords = ASFV; RPA; african summary = title: Rapid and Sensitive Recombinase Polymerase Amplification Combined With Lateral Flow Strip for Detecting African Swine Fever Virus In this study, we developed a rapid test that combines recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) of the ASFV p72 gene with lateral flow detection (LFD). Results showed that the sensitivity of recombinase polymerase amplification with lateral flow dipstick (RPA-LFD) for ASFV was 150 copies per reaction within 10 min at 38°C. A dilution range of 10 0 to 10 5 copies per reaction of pMD19-p72 recombinant plasmid was used to evaluate the sensitivity of recombinase polymerase amplification with lateral flow dipstick (RPA-LFD), and the amplicons were evaluated through agarose gel electrophoresis. The sensitivity results showed that the detection limit of the ASFV RPA-LFD assay was 10 2 copies per reaction of the recombinant plasmid pMD19-p72. Development of a TaqMan PCR assay with internal amplification control for the detection of African swine fever virus A recombinase polymerase amplification-based assay for rapid detection of African swine fever virus doi = 10.3389/fmicb.2019.01004 id = cord-352670-21r0cwsc author = Muyingo, Rajab Idd title = Coronavirus in the era of digital connectivity: Opportunities and challenges date = 2020-08-02 keywords = african summary = We conclude that digital connectedness enabled African countries to access; share and implement globally suggested mechanisms aimed at controlling the spread of the COVID‐19 epidemic. We deduce that digital connectedness of individuals and organizations eased sharing of information on the causes and measures aimed at controlling and avoid the rapid spread of the epidemic in developing economies of Africa. We deduce that digital connectedness of individuals and organizations eased sharing of information on the causes and measures aimed at controlling and avoid the rapid spread of the epidemic in developing economies of Africa. We conclude that digital connectedness enabled African countries to access; share and implement globally suggested mechanisms aimed at controlling the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic. In developing economies (Kasadha, 2018 (Kasadha, , 2020 , digital connectivity has increased community mobilization in response to their which has not yet been reported in Africa, the continent has often engaged its communities in the fight against other epidemics such as swine fever and Ebola viruses. doi = 10.1002/pa.2246 id = cord-253466-7gpije5d author = Netherton, Christopher title = A Guide to Viral Inclusions, Membrane Rearrangements, Factories, and Viroplasm Produced During Virus Replication date = 2007-08-31 keywords = ASFV; Fig; Golgi; Poliovirus; RNA; african; dna; protein; replication; virus summary = Significantly, Poliovirus infection causes enrichment of GEFs in membranes containing replicase proteins, and this would provide a mechanism for increasing levels of Arf1-GTP at sites of virus replication. There is evidence that Tobacco mosaic virus also uses the ER as a site of replication because the replicase enzyme and viral RNA are located on the ER of infected cells, and infection causes major changes in ER morphology (Reichel and Beachy, 1998) , including ER aggregation and formation of lamella structures. Even though these viruses infect a diverse range of hosts from different phyla, including vertebrates [poxviruses, African swine fever virus (ASFV)], arthropods (entomopox, ASFV, chloriridoviruses), amphibians and fish (Ranavirus, Megalocytivirus, and Lymphocystivirus genera of the Iridoviridae family), marine algae (phycodnaviruses), and protozoa (mimivirus), they all generate cytoplasmic factories as major sites of virus assembly and replication (illustrated in Fig. 4 ). Formation of DNA replication structures in herpes virus-infected cells requires a viral DNA binding protein doi = 10.1016/s0065-3527(07)70004-0 id = cord-355737-o0y4rn0z author = Ng, Melinda title = Filovirus receptor NPC1 contributes to species-specific patterns of ebolavirus susceptibility in bats date = 2015-12-23 keywords = EBOV; Ebola; NPC1; african; bat; figure summary = To assess whether the EBOV infection defect in the African straw-colored fruit bat cells occurs at the viral entry step, we exposed an expanded panel of kidney fibroblast cell lines from four African pteropodids to VSV pseudotypes bearing GP spikes (VSV-GP) from seven filoviruses, including two non-African viruses, Reston virus (RESTV) and Lloviu virus (LLOV) ( Figure 1D ). Like the infection defect in African straw-colored fruit bat cells, this receptor binding defect was selective for EBOV GP, since GPs derived from MARV and the European filovirus, LLOV (Ng et al., 2014) , bound equivalently to all four pteropodid domain Cs ( Figure 4A ). . We conclude that a species-specific defect in virus-receptor interaction, caused by a single amino acid residue change in EhNPC1 relative to other, permissive African pteropodid NPC1 orthologs, reduces EBOV infection in African straw-colored fruit bat cells. doi = 10.7554/elife.11785 id = cord-260305-pl2ditn7 author = Nyika, Aceme title = The ethics of improving African traditional medical practice: Scientific or African traditional research methods? date = 2009-11-30 keywords = Traditional; african; medicine summary = Abstract The disease burden in Africa, which is relatively very large compared with developed countries, has been attributed to various factors that include poverty, food shortages, inadequate access to health care and unaffordability of Western medicines to the majority of African populations. This paper argues that continuing to use African traditional medicines for old and new diseases without making concerted efforts to improve their efficacy and safety is unethical since the disease burden affecting Africa may continue to rise in spite of the availability and accessibility of the traditional medicines. The involvement of such organizations as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the African Union (AU) in promoting scientific research into ATM has enhanced conduction of various types of scientific studies aimed at improving the safety, efficacy and quality of traditional medicines (AACHRD, 2002) . doi = 10.1016/j.actatropica.2009.08.010 id = cord-259852-skhoro95 author = Oboh, Mary Aigbiremo title = Beyond SARS-CoV-2: Lessons That African Governments Can Apply in Preparation for Possible Future Epidemics date = 2020-08-18 keywords = SARS; african summary = In addition to the Regional Disease Surveillance Systems Enhancement fund (US$600 million) provided by the World Bank for strengthening health systems and disease surveillance, each country should further establish an epidemic emergency fund for epidemic preparedness and response. Given the various epidemic events that have previously oc-curred in Africa, from Ebola virus disease (EVD) [4] to yellow fever, cholera, measles and Lassa fever [5] , it would almost be safe to assume that African governments have prepared proactive measures against possible future epidemics. A measure could have been applied to restrict travel even from countries with fewer than 100 confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases given that the virus is highly transmissible, with a high reproductive number [3] . In addition to the REDISSE fund (US$600 million) created by the World Bank for strengthening health systems and disease surveillance, each country should further map out an epidemic emergency fund that will be used to address situations such as this in the future. doi = 10.3961/jpmph.20.259 id = cord-002222-rgqwm3vb author = Olarte-Castillo, Ximena A. title = Divergent Sapovirus Strains and Infection Prevalence in Wild Carnivores in the Serengeti Ecosystem: A Long-Term Study date = 2016-09-23 keywords = RNA; Serengeti; african; infection; sapovirus summary = By screening a large number of predominantly fecal samples (n = 631) obtained from five carnivore species in the Serengeti ecosystem, East Africa, sapovirus RNA was detected in the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta, family Hyaenidae), African lion (Panthera leo, family Felidae), and bat-eared fox (Otocyon megalotis, family Canidae), but not in golden or silver-backed jackals (Canis aureus and C. Long-term monitoring of sapovirus in a population of individually known spotted hyenas from 2001 to 2012 revealed: i) a relatively high overall infection prevalence (34.8%); ii) the circulation of several genetically diverse variants; iii) large fluctuations in infection prevalence across years, indicative of outbreaks; iv) no significant difference in the likelihood of infection between animals in different age categories. A total of 20 partial RdRp gene sequences (16 from spotted hyenas, 3 from African lions and 1 from bat-eared foxes) were obtained and used for the phylogenetic analysis, together with publically available sequence data from 25 representatives of all sapovirus genogroups, divergent unclassified sapoviruses, and other genera in the Caliciviridae family, including Norovirus and Vesivirus. doi = 10.1371/journal.pone.0163548 id = cord-308165-pk8d48hs author = Olu, Olushayo Oluseun title = Moving from rhetoric to action: how Africa can use scientific evidence to halt the COVID-19 pandemic date = 2020-10-28 keywords = COVID-19; african; transmission summary = Given the weak health system in most African countries, mounting timely and robust responses to the COVID-19 pandemic will be a big challenge hence the need to focus on targeted and high impact prevention and control interventions that could break the chain of transmission quickly. Putting the above scientific evidences on the characteristics and dynamics of COVID-19 transmission, prevention and control into perspective against the backdrop of the social, cultural and economic context in Africa, we deduce several lessons which could guide African countries to better prepare for and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic on the continent. African countries should learn from this experience and implement available guidance from WHO to ensure that essential health services are maintained during the COVID-19 pandemic particularly during lockdowns to reduce excess mortality from other preventable diseases [40] [41] [42] . doi = 10.1186/s40249-020-00740-0 id = cord-273965-ma1rwkdq author = Omonzejele, Peter F. title = Preserving Bodily Integrity of Deceased Patients From the Novel SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic in West Africa date = 2020-11-09 keywords = COVID-19; african; west summary = The enforcement of social distancing, self-isolation, and lockdown has made it impossible for West Africans to drift to their ancestral homes and villages, as is usually the case in times of crisis, with attendant consequences for communal life and traditional burial rites. Though the WHO has suggested it as one of the most effective ways to prevent contracting the COVID-19 virus, the fact remains that many West African communities do not have access to running water, especially those in rural areas (Omonzejele 2014, 418) . Since this is the most probable case for escapes from isolation centres, governments in the West African region should, perhaps, engage with the WHO to seek technical expertise in the decontamination of deceased people from COVID-19 isolation centres, and then make such corpses available to their families for traditional burial rites. doi = 10.1007/s11673-020-10061-4 id = cord-151532-mpv2wegm author = Peng, Kerui title = Diversity in immunogenomics: the value and the challenge date = 2020-10-20 keywords = AIRR; african; population; seq summary = With the recent advent of high-throughput sequencing technologies, and the associated new discoveries and developments, the fields of immunogenomics and adaptive immune receptor repertoire research are facing both opportunities and challenges. By leveraging biological and clinical heterogeneity across different populations in omics data and expanding the populations that are included in immunogenomics research, we can enhance our understanding of human adaptive immune responses, promote the development of effective diagnostics and treatments, and eventually advance precision medicine. However, challenges need to be overcome, including the high levels of copy number variation and segmental duplication in the BCR and TCR loci, and the need for protocols to validate novel allelic variants gleaned from short-read sequencing data 45, 77 Finally, we suggest the need for additional infrastructure and expertise in regions and countries with populations underrepresented in research, and to enhance collaborations between countries, which are critical in minimizing global health disparities. doi = nan id = cord-313574-8t5y9gqq author = Roy, Siddhartha title = Systematic Review of Interventions to Increase Stool Blood Colorectal Cancer Screening in African Americans date = 2020-06-24 keywords = CRC; african; american summary = To critically assess and synthesize the available evidence for the effectiveness of colorectal cancer screening programs in primary and community health care, this systematic review aims to review quality studies testing different strategies for increasing stool blood colorectal cancer screening rates in African Americans. The objective of this systematic review is to assess the effectiveness of colorectal cancer screening using stool blood testing approaches, specifically in studies which included either exclusively African Americans, or were conducted in health systems with a high proportion of African American patients. The form included questions on sample setting, sample size, study design, randomization procedures, follow-up time periods, target population, intervention description, control group description, participant demographics, type of screening tests, means of screening confirmation (chart versus self-report), and study outcomes by study arm and screening adherence. This systematic review examines summary findings from 11 experimental studies designed to test the effectiveness of interventions to increase colorectal cancer screening, specifically using stool blood CRC screening approaches such as FIT or gFOBT in African American communities. doi = 10.1007/s10900-020-00867-z id = cord-316209-juvmabdq author = Rutayisire, Erigene title = What works and what does not work in response to COVID-19 prevention and control in Africa date = 2020-06-12 keywords = COVID-19; african summary = The lower number of COVID-19 cases in most African countries is attributed to inadequate health systems, low-to-absent testing capacity, poor reporting system and insufficient number of medical staff. On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared COVID-19 a pandemic, pointing to the over 118,000 cases of the coronavirus illnesses in over 110 countries and territories around the world and the sustained risk of further global spread. Africa Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), World Health Organization and other international agencies are providing support and guidance to many African countries in response to COVID-19 pandemic. Despite reported low case-fatality of COVID-19, the pandemic is likely to cause more deaths in Africa if the compliance to COVID-19 prevention and control measures continues to be ignored as observed in some African countries. doi = 10.1016/j.ijid.2020.06.024 id = cord-305103-g0ndggwc author = Sood, Lakshay title = Being African American and Rural: A Double Jeopardy from Covid‐19 date = 2020-05-03 keywords = Americans; african summary = The effect of COVID-19 on African Americans is better understood by analyzing the racial disparities related to previous pandemics caused by other types of coronaviruses. Results from all the different studies of the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic indicate that African Americans had higher mortality and case fatality rates than whites. 6 Rural states like Oklahoma documented highest hospitalization rates for African Americans and lowest for whites. 6 These data are comparable to those for COVID-19, where 33% of hospitalized patients nationwide (among those whose race was known) were African American, even though the latter constitute only 13% of the US population. 2 Why are African Americans at greater risk for COVID-19, as compared to other racial/ethnic groups? 11 Within this region, there are racial disparities in health care coverage that disproportionately affect African Americans. Racial disparities in exposure, susceptibility, and access to health care in the US H1N1 influenza pandemic doi = 10.1111/jrh.12459 id = cord-305026-t4wkv89b author = Treadwell, Henrie M. title = The Pandemic, Racism, and Health Disparities Among African American Men date = 2020-08-07 keywords = african; american summary = The coronavirus pandemic has amplified health disparities by race and gender, perhaps most notably among African American men. While some attribute the overall poor health and disparate rates of morbidity and mortality to individual behaviors, that assessment fails to assess the direct damage inflicted by a social and political system that has marginalized and minimized efforts to provide meaningful services even at the primary health-care level. It is important to acknowledge that institutionalized populations are not included in population statistics unless they enter the health-care system for treatment, a subject discussed at length in the recently published manuscript, "Discerning disparities: The data gap" (Treadwell et al., 2019) and in the article "Collecting demographic data is the first step in eliminating racism in healthcare" (Eschner, 2020) . Damage is perpetrated when researchers and individuals who report on morbidity, mortality, and equitable health-care access remain silent about institutionalized populations, such as African American men who are disproportionately represented in America''s prisons. doi = 10.1177/1557988320949379 id = cord-032552-rjuug7er author = Umviligihozo, Gisele title = Sub-Saharan Africa preparedness and response to the COVID-19 pandemic: A perspective of early career African scientists date = 2020-07-08 keywords = COVID-19; SARS; SSA; african summary = As a group of early career scientists and the next generation of African scientific leaders with experience of working in medical and diverse health research fields in both SSA and resource-rich countries, we present a unique perspective on the current public health interventions to fight COVID-19 in Africa. As a group of early career scientists and the next generation of African scientific leaders with experience of working in medical and diverse health research fields in both SSA and resource-rich countries, we present a unique perspective on the current public health interventions to fight COVID-19 in Africa. We documented public health interventions implemented in seven SSA countries including Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Cameroon, Zambia, South Africa and Botswana, the existing gaps and the important components of disease control that may strengthen SSA response to future outbreaks. We documented public health interventions implemented in seven SSA countries including Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Cameroon, Zambia, South Africa and Botswana, the existing gaps and the important components of disease control that may strengthen SSA response to future outbreaks. doi = 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16070.1 id = cord-304909-3wmrjlhy author = Wicker, L. V. title = Potential Pathogens Reported in Species of the Family Viverridae and Their Implications for Human and Animal Health date = 2016-06-30 keywords = Viverridae; african; civet; masked; table summary = No attempt has yet been made to collate the current knowledge of potential pathogens detected from species within the family Viverridae (Shepherd, 2008; Bongiovanni et al., 2014) despite the family''s long history of exploitation for human consumption (Abebe, 2003; Shepherd and Shepherd, 2010) , the management of threatened viverrids for conservation (Roberton et al., 2002) , the peri-urban habitation of many species within the family (King et al., 1993; Ninomiya et al., 2003; Sato et al., 2013) and their susceptibility to a number of important zoonotic pathogens including the novel coronavirus responsible for the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) (Guan et al., 2003; Tu, 2004) , rabies virus (Matsumoto et al., 2011) and highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 (HPAI H5N1) (Roberton et al., 2006) . doi = 10.1111/zph.12290 id = cord-318593-ni84gzg5 author = Wolf, Jayanthi title = Applying lessons from the Ebola vaccine experience for SARS-CoV-2 and other epidemic pathogens date = 2020-06-15 keywords = Ebola; african; need; vaccine summary = Experience gained in the development of vaccines for Ebola virus disease provide important lessons in the regulatory, clinical, and manufacturing process that can be applied to SARS-CoV-2 and other epidemic pathogens. Extraordinary efforts were made to advance this vaccine candidate through Phase 1, 2, and 3 clinical trials and the data generated in the context of the West African Ebola outbreak has supported its licensure by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), conditional authorization by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and several African countries, along with prequalification by the WHO. Regulatory agency collaboration is critical for success From the start of the West African Ebola outbreak, the US FDA, EMA, and Health Canada worked closely with each other and with the National Regulatory Authorities of the impacted West African countries, sharing information about candidate vaccines that were being tested and reviewing the clinical protocols, available data, and benefit-risk profiles. doi = 10.1038/s41541-020-0204-7 id = cord-310058-tp42rgmv author = Zhu, Yuan-Shou title = Multiplex and visual detection of African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) based on Hive-Chip and direct loop-mediated isothermal amplification date = 2020-10-08 keywords = ASFV; Chip; Hive; african summary = title: Multiplex and visual detection of African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) based on Hive-Chip and direct loop-mediated isothermal amplification On-chip LAMP showed the limits of detection (LOD) of ASFV synthetic DNAs and mock samples are 30 and 50 copies per microliter, respectively, and there is no cross-reaction among the target genes. Multiplex detection of real samples of ASFV and other swine viruses further demonstrates the high sensitivity and specificity of Hive-Chip. Last but not least, all methods aforementioned are usually focused on detecting only one gene target at a time, such as B646L encoding viral protein P72 (VP72) [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] , 9GL encoding sulfhydryl oxidase [20] , P1192R encoding topoisomerase II [22] , or K78R encoding DNA binding protein P10 [23] , which may lead to false-negative results because of possible mutations on the complex, highly variable genomes of ASFV. doi = 10.1016/j.aca.2020.10.011 id = cord-317640-61crnh6a author = Zhu, Zhaozhong title = Homologous recombination shapes the genetic diversity of African swine fever viruses date = 2019-08-10 keywords = ASFV; Fig; african summary = Besides, the homologous recombination also led to changes of gene content of ASFVs. Finally, repeated elements of dozens of nucleotides in length were observed to widely distribute and cluster in the adjacent positions of ASFV genomes, which may facilitate the occurrence of homologous recombination. The paired t-test was used to test whether the genomic differences caused by the insertions and deletions (indels) were similar to those caused by the point mutations, and whether the number of repeated elements in the windows (1000-10,000bp in length) including recombination was similar to those without recombination. For robustness of the results, we also conducted the analysis based on the genome alignment by ClustalW (Larkin et al., 2007) , and found that the indels caused larger genomic differences than the point mutations did (p-value = 3.2e-9 in the paired t-test) (Fig. S3B) . doi = 10.1016/j.vetmic.2019.08.003 id = cord-002774-tpqsjjet author = nan title = Section II: Poster Sessions date = 2017-12-01 keywords = AIDS; Canada; Centre; City; Community; HCV; HIV; Health; India; MSM; National; New; Toronto; Vancouver; York; access; african; age; care; child; datum; drug; group; high; introduction; method; need; patient; population; poster; program; research; result; service; session; social; study; urban; woman; year summary = Results: The CHIP Framework The CHIP framework aims to improve the health and wellness of the urban communities served by St. Josephs Health Centre through four intersecting pillars: • Raising Community Voices provides an infrastructure and process that supports community stakeholder input into health care service planning, decision-making, and delivery by the hospital and across the continuum of care; • Sharing Reciprocal Capacity promotes healthy communities through the sharing of our intellectual and physical capacity with our community partners; • Cultivating Integration Initiatives facilitates vertical, horizontal, and intersectoral integration initiatives in support of community-identified needs and gaps; and • Facilitating Healthy Exchange develops best practices in community integration through community-based research, and facilitates community voice in informing public policy. doi = 10.1093/jurban/jti137