BACKGROUND It has been demonstrated that infection with human parvovirus B19 (B19V) is associated with rash-fever illnesses. The present study aimed to investigate B19V as an aetiological agent of rash-fever syndromes in Congolese children confirmed as measles and rubella IgM-negative. An ELISA IgM test and PCR were performed to screen for B19V. METHODS A total of 177 archived serum samples w...

DRC (Coltheart et al., 2001) and CDP++ (Perry et al., 2010) are two of the most successful models of reading aloud. These models differ primarily in how their sublexical systems convert letter strings into phonological codes. DRC adopts a set of grapheme-to-phoneme conversion rules (GPCs) while CDP++ uses a simple trained network that has been exposed to a combination of rules and the spellings...

Multidrug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a serious threat which jeopardizes the worldwide efforts to control TB. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of 27 countries with a high burden of MDR-TB. Data on the magnitude, trends, and the distribution of MDR-TB in DRC are scanty. Kinshasa, the capital city of DRC which accounts for 20% of all TB cases nationwide, is notifying more than...

BACKGROUND The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA) have been recently modified by coupling to oligochromatography (OC) for easy and fast visualisation of products. In this study we evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the PCR-OC and NASBA-OC for diagnosis of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense and Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense human African try...

BACKGROUND In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), men who have sex with men (MSM) and female sex workers (FSW) have the highest HIV prevalence but have the least access to services due to their marginalization within Congolese society. METHODS The Projet Intégré de VIH/SIDA au Congo (ProVIC) aims to reduce the risk and impact of HIV in the DRC through community- and facility-based prevent...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a primary malignancy of the liver and is a major cause of cancer related deaths worldwide. Only 10 to 20% of HCC can be surgically excised. Therefore, chemotherapeutic intervention and treatment is essential for achieving favorable prognosis. However, therapeutic outcome of chemotherapy is generally poor owing to inherent resistance of cancer cells to the treat...

Dynamic range compression (DRC) is a much-used process in music production. Traditionally the process was implemented in order to control the dynamic range of program material to minimize the potential of overloading recording devices. However, over time DRC became a process that was applied more as a creative effect and less as a preventative measure. In a professional recording environment it...

BACKGROUND Prevalence of child stunting in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is among the highest in the world. There is a need to systematically investigate how stunting operates at different levels of determination and identify major factors contributing to the development of stunting. The aim of this study was to look for key determinants of stunting in the DRC. METHODS This study use...

Defective repair of sunlight-induced DNA photodamage, coupled with an unusually high occurrence of multiple primary basal cell carcinomas (BCCs), is the major characteristic of xeroderma pigmentosum. Our recent work has indicated that this etiological paradigm may apply to skin cancer patients without an apparent hereditary disease. The present study reports on an investigation of whether medic...

CONTEXT Studies from the Eastern Region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have provided anecdotal reports of sexual violence. This study offers a population-based assessment of the prevalence of sexual violence and human rights abuses in specific territories within Eastern DRC. OBJECTIVE To assess the prevalence of and correlations with sexual violence and human rights violations ...