@phdthesis{JanzenMaaser2023, author = {Janzen-Maaser, Anita}, title = {Prevalence of Strongyloides infection and other intestinal parasites in paediatric patients in a referral hospital in Northern Tanzania}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-29702}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-297023}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2023}, abstract = {The StrongPaed study in the paediatric ward of a referral hospital in Mwanza in the lake region of Tanzania showed the prevalence of S. stercoralis, G. lamblia, E. histolytica and E. dispar as well as of other intestinal parasites with various diagnostic methods. The prevalence of S. stercoralis was 2-10 \% depending on the diagnostic methods used. There were no symptomatic infections but only carriage of the nematode. The positive results differed greatly depending on the performed diagnostic methods. None of the diagnostics showed satisfying results, neither in sensitivity and specificity nor in feasibility for this population in an endemic region in sub-Saharan Africa. PCR and microscopy were limited by the low amount of examined stool samples and by the resulting lack of sensitivity. Stool cultures were limited by time-consuming procedures and mainly by the problem of differentiation from hookworm and the resulting lack of specificity. ELISA was limited by the need of blood samples and also by poor specificity in the ELISA used. The prevalence of G. lamblia was high, but mostly only carriage and not symptomatic infections was seen. No E. histolytica was detected, but 8.5 \% samples were positive for E. dispar. Among the performed diagnostics, the rapid test showed sufficient results. It showed better sensitivity than microscopy and is cheaper and more feasible than PCR. Differentiation between E. histolytica and E. dispar was only possible with qPCR performed in Germany. More children were positive for intestinal parasites from rural than from urban areas. The profession of the parents working as farmers was a risk factor for intestinal parasitic infections. Hygienic living conditions such as access to tap water and flush toilets at home were preventive for intestinal parasitic infections in children.}, subject = {Strongyloides}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Mann2017, author = {Mann, Daniel}, title = {"The smell of Ujamaa is still there" - Tanzania's Path of Development between Grassroots Socialism and Central State Control in Ruvuma}, edition = {1. Auflage}, publisher = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, address = {W{\"u}rzburg}, isbn = {978-3-95826-066-5 (print)}, issn = {0510-9833}, doi = {10.25972/WUP-978-3-95826-067-2}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-154079}, school = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, pages = {332}, year = {2017}, abstract = {In the 1960s, when most African nations gained their independence after the age of colonialism, several theories and strategies emerged with the goal of "developing" these apparently "underdeveloped" territories. One of the most influential approaches for this task was represented in Julius K. Nyerere´s idea of Ujamaa, the Tanzanian version of African socialism. Even before the Arusha Declaration established Ujamaa as a national development strategy in 1967, several groups of politicized young farmers took to the empty countryside of Tanzania to implement their own version of cooperative development. From one of these attempts emerged the Ruvuma Development Association (RDA), which organized up to 18 villages in southwestern Tanzania. The RDA became the inspiration for Nyerere´s concretization of Ujamaa and its implementation on national level. Yet, the central state could not replicate the success of the peasants, which was based on voluntariness and intrinsic motivation. In 2015, this exploratory study has revisited the Region of Ruvuma. Through a case study approach, relying mostly on qualitative methods, new insights into the local history of Ujamaa and its perception have been gathered. In particular, narrative interviews with contemporary witnesses and group interviews with the present-day farmers' groups have been conducted. Furthermore, NGOs active within the region, as well as regional and local government institutions were among the key stakeholders identified to concretize the local narrative of Ujamaa development. All interviews were analyzed according to the principles of qualitative content analysis. Additionally, individual villager questionnaires were used to achieve a more holistic picture of the local perception of development, challenges and the Ujamaa era. None of the original Ujamaa groups of the times of the RDA was still operational at the time of research and no case of village-wide organization of collective agriculture could be observed. Nevertheless, in all of the three case study villages, several farmers' groups (vikundi) were active in organizing development activities for their members. Furthermore, the perception of the Ujamaa era was generally positive throughout all of the case study sites. Yet, there have been significant differences in this perception, based on the village, age, gender and field size of the recipients. Overall, the period of Ujamaa was seen as an inspiration for present-day group activities, and the idea of such activities as a remedy for the developmental challenges of these villages was common among all stakeholders. This thesis concludes that the positive perception of group activities as a vehicle for village development and the perception of Ujamaa history as a positive asset for the inception and organization of farmers' groups would be highly beneficial to further attempts to support such development activities. However, the limitations in market access and capital availability for these highly-motivated group members have to be addressed by public and private development institutions. Otherwise, "the smell of Ujamaa" will be of little use for the progress of these villages.}, subject = {Ujamaa-Sozialismus}, language = {en} } @article{KasangKalluvyaMajingeetal.2011, author = {Kasang, Christa and Kalluvya, Samuel and Majinge, Charles and Stich, August and Bodem, Jochen and Kongola, Gilbert and Jacobs, Graeme B. and Mllewa, Mathias and Mildner, Miriam and Hensel, Irina and Horn, Anne and Preiser, Wolfgang and van Zyl, Gert and Klinker, Hartwig and Koutsilieri, Eleni and Rethwilm, Axel and Scheller, Carsten and Weissbrich, Benedikt}, title = {HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) in antiretroviral therapy-naive patients in Tanzania not eligible for WHO threshold HIVDR survey is dramatically high}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-69024}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended guidelines for a HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) survey for resource-limited countries. Eligibility criteria for patients include age below 25 years in order to focus on the prevalence of transmitted HIVDR (tHIVDR) in newly-infected individuals. Most of the participating sites across Africa have so far reported tHIVDR prevalences of below 5\%. In this study we investigated whether the rate of HIVDR in patients ,25 years is representative for HIVDR in the rest of the therapy-naive population. Methods and Findings: HIVDR was determined in 88 sequentially enrolled ART-naive patients from Mwanza, Tanzania (mean age 35.4 years). Twenty patients were aged, 25 years and 68 patients were aged 25-63 years. The frequency of HIVDR in the study population was 14.8\% (95\%; CI 0.072-0.223) and independent of NVP-resistance induced by prevention of mother-to-child transmission programs. Patients .25 years had a significantly higher HIVDR frequency than younger patients (19.1\%; 95\% CI 0.095-0.28) versus 0\%, P = 0.0344). In 2 out of the 16 patients with HIVDR we found traces of antiretrovirals (ARVs) in plasma. Conclusions: ART-naive patients aged over 25 years exhibited significantly higher HIVDR than younger patients. Detection of traces of ARVs in individuals with HIVDR suggests that besides transmission, undisclosed misuse of ARVs may constitute a significant factor in the generation of the observed high HIVDR rate. The current WHO tHIVDR survey that is solely focused on the transmission of HIVDR and that excludes patients over 25 years of age may therefore result in substantial underestimation of the prevalence of HIVDR in the therapy-naive population. Similar studies should be performed also in other areas to test whether the so far reported optimistic picture of low HIVDR prevalence in young individuals is really representative for the rest of the ART-naive HIV-infected population.}, subject = {Tansania}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Jacobs2011, author = {Jacobs, Graeme Brendon}, title = {HIV-1 resistance analyses from therapy-na{\"i}ve patients in South Africa, Tanzania and the characterization of a new HIV-1 subtype C proviral molecular clone}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-67319}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2011}, abstract = {The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is currently the most infectious disease worldwide. It is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). At the moment there are ~33.3 million people infected with HIV. Sub-Saharan Africa, with ~22.5 million people infected accounts for 68\% of the global burden. In most African countries antiretroviral therapy (ART) is administered in limited-resource settings with standardised first- and second-line ART regimens. During this study I analysed the therapy-na{\"i}ve population of Cape Town, South Africa and Mwanza, Tanzania for any resistance associated mutations (RAMs) against protease inhibitors, nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors. My results indicate that HIV-1 subtype C accounts for ~95\% of all circulating strains in Cape Town, South Africa. I could show that ~3.6\% of the patient derived viruses had RAMs, despite patients being therapy-na{\"i}ve. In Mwanza, Tanzania the HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) prevalence in the therapy-na{\"i}ve population was 14.8\% and significantly higher in the older population, >25 years. Therefore, the current WHO transmitted HIVDR (tHIVDR) survey that is solely focused on the transmission of HIVDR and that excludes patients over 25 years of age may result in substantial underestimation of the prevalence of HIVDR in the therapy-na{\"i}ve population. Based on the prevalence rates of tHIVDR in the study populations it is recommended that all HIV-1 positive individuals undergo a genotyping resistance test before starting ART. I also characterized vif sequences from HIV-1 infected patients from Cape Town, South Africa as the Vif protein has been shown to counteract the antiretroviral activity of the cellular APOBEC3G/F cytidine deaminases. There is no selective pressure on the HIV-1 Vif protein from current ART regimens and vif sequences was used as an evolutionary control. As the majority of phenotypic resistance assays are still based on HIV-1 subtype B, I wanted to design an infectious HIV-1 subtype C proviral molecular clone that can be used for in vitro assays based on circulating strains in South Africa. Therefore, I characterized an early primary HIV-1 subtype C isolate from Cape Town, South Africa and created a new infectious subtype C proviral molecular clone (pZAC). The new pZAC virus has a significantly higher transient viral titer after transfection and replication rate than the previously published HIV-1 subtype C virus from Botswana. The optimized proviral molecular clone, pZAC could be used in future cell culture and phenotypic HIV resistance assays regarding HIV-1 subtype C.}, subject = {HIV}, language = {en} }