Surveillance of the Buruli Ulcer in The Democratic Republic of Congo (Drc): Preliminary Results (2016-2018) | Biomedgrid

Context: Buruli ulcer poses a real public health problem, not well known, calling for international mobilization. It is an emerging threat to public health in many rural and inter-tropical regions, and DRC is not immune to this problem. However, improving the visibility of this disease and mobilizing resources are ways to make disease control activities more effective. Objective: To gather information on Buruli ulcer in the different provinces of the DRC. Material and methods: Samples came from different provinces of DRC from patients uspected of Buruli ulcer. Two techniques were performed namely Ziehl-Nelsen and real-time PCR to confirm cases. Data comparison was performed using the Chi-square test. Results: During 3 years of surveillance (2016-2018), 984 samples were recorded, of which 86.1% were swabs. 72 (7.3%) were Ziehl positive and 251 (25.51%) were confirmed by PCR-(p <0.001). However, the positivity by province, led by Equateur (11/19, 57.9%), followed by Kongo Central (215/707, 30.4%) and Maniema (16/52, 30, 7%). On the other hand Haut Uele and Kinshasa had respectively 3/13(23, 1%) and 13/188(6, 9%). Conclusion: Buruli ulcer surveillance is a public health goal both to measure the importance and trends of its incidence in DRC. This monitoring is important for better documenting the burden of the disease, mapping endemic villages and also ensuring better case management