Seed funding Senegal
Dr Jamil Kahwagi
Implementing an hospital-based encephalitis surveillance in Senegal to decipher main causes of viral encephalitis
in a West-African Low-Income Country
Project Lead – Dr Jamil Kahwagi, Clinique de Neurosciences Ibrahima Pierre Ndiaye, CHNU FANN, Dakar, SENEGAL
Awarded 2021
Lay Summary
Background: Acute meningoencephalitis is a serious disease associated with high mortality. They can be caused by pathogens (bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites) or of autoimmune origin. Viruses play an important role in encephalitis, but little is known about their mode of action. A viral aetiology would be suspected in most cases, but current diagnostic tools only allow to search for a limited number of viral agents already known. To date, in Senegal, very little data are available on the main etiological causes of infectious meningoencephalitis.
This lack of knowledge impacts the management of patient, and it is essentially based on a probabilistic approach. This study aims to increase our knowledge of the viral aetiologies of meningoencephalitis in Senegal.
Methods: The protocol will be part of the routine hospital management for patients with infectious meningoencephalitis. Various biological samples will be taken, such as cerebrospinal fluids (CSF), whole blood, oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal swabs, and urine. In addition to the samples, socio-demographic, clinical and exposure data will be collected in a questionnaire to describe the epidemiology of encephalitis cases and identify potential risk factors. We will make the use of a multiplexes detection system (RT-PCR) enabling the detection of the major encephalitis-associated viruses.
Additional funds from other ongoing and future projects will extend the panel of detection to other pathogens as well as serology assay (SARS-CoV-2), metagenomic approach and the evaluation of the use of a rapid test (lateral flow device) by clinician and its predictive value for the orientation of bacterial vs. viral infection.
Expected results: The project will identify the main viral aetiologies associated with encephalitis, clinical description of cases, identification of risk factors and better management of infectious encephalitis.