Groups Of African Origin Research Articles

A Very Brief Analysis on Religious Intolerance against Religious Groups of African Origin in Brazil

ABSTRACT This essay describes how Afro-Brazilian religious leaders in Rio de Janeiro responded to the escalating problem of religious intolerance in their state. The leaders formed the Commission to Combat Religious Intolerance, developed academic research groups, and organized a Walk in Defense of Religious Freedom.

Ophthalmology national normative database series (2): Gonioscopic character of the normal anterior chamber angle in sudanese adults

Background: The anterior chamber angle (ACA) is the anatomical angle bounded by the iris root and the peripheral corneal vault that comprises the aqueous outflow drains, namely the trabecular meshwork (TM) and the Schlemm's canal. The assessment of the ACA is used to classify glaucoma into open or narrow angle glaucoma's. Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the normal range values of the gonioscopic character of the ACA in adult Sudanese population and to define the effects of age, gender, and tribal ethnicity on these values. Materials and Methods: Three hundred ninety-eight eyes (n = 396); of 198 adults volunteers Sudanese healthy workers, from two factories in Khartoum, North district, were enrolled in this study; over a period of 3 months from January 1, 2009 to March 30, 2009. One hundred and sixty males 38 were females; aged ranged from 18 to 50 years. All participants underwent systematic static and dynamic gonioscopy by Posner Gonio lens in conjunction with Haag- Streit slit lamp. Then, the ACAs were graded according to Shaffer grading and classification system. The effect of age, gender and tribal ethnicity on ACA was analyzed. Then, the overall grading and TM Pigmentation analysis were done with special grading criteria specifically designed for this study (Manal–Saleem ACA Overall Grading System and Saleem-Manal TM Pigmentation Grading System). Results: In total, 198 (n = 198) Sudanese adults were recruited for the study with the mean age of the study group was 43 ± 16 years (range: 18–50 years). About 80.8% of males and 19.2% of females. 77.8% have open ACA and 19.2% narrow ACA, 0.5% closed ACA, and 2.5% with Creeping ACA. Open ACA is more in males (81.3%) than female (63.2%) while narrow ACA is more in female (34.2%) than male (15.6%). Closed and creeping ACA are similar in the two sexes. The effects of tribal ethnicity was not so profound as both the Arabs (84.1%) and Africans (87.5%) origin groups were showing minor differences in the high rate of open-angle (3.4% more in the African's) and narrow ACA (2.9% more in Arab's) apart from the Bejja groups, who recorded 100% narrow ACA while the Nubian groups of Far North recorded a lower percentage of the open ACA (78.6%) and higher of narrow ACA (17.9%). Narrow ACA was proved to be more with older age (25% as compared 10–12.5%). The TM Pigmentation in the younger age groups was found to be of lightly pigmented in 66.7% and heavily pigmented in 33.3%. A result which was affected by tribal ethnicity; 54.9% of Arab origin groups have lightly pigmented TM while 92.0% of African origin groups presented with heavily pigmented TM. In general, pigmentation was shown to be more heavily in the inferior quadrant rather than superior and horizontal quadrants. Conclusion: There is a higher rate of open ACA (77.8%) in Sudanese Adults with low rate (19.2%) of narrow ACA, followed by an even more lower rate of creeping ACA 2.5% and scarcely closed ACAs (0.5%). The average Sudanese ACA TM pigmentation is 35.4% being of light pigmentation and 64.6% of heavy pigmentation with highly significant tribal, age, and Quadrantic variations (P = 0.000).

COMPARATIVE TRENDS OF SEROPREVALENCE AND SEROINCIDENCE RATES OF HUMAN T CELL LYMPHOTROPIC VIRUS TYPE I AND HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS 1 IN PREGNANT WOMEN OF VARIOUS ETHNIC GROUPS SHARING THE SAME ENVIRONMENT IN FRENCH GUIANA

The objectives of this study were to compare the seroprevalence and seroincidence rates of human T cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) and human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) in pregnant women in several ethnic groups in French Guiana between July 1, 1991 and June 30, 2001. This study was conducted in the obstetrics unit of the hospital in Saint Laurent du Maroni in a dynamic cohort of 6,921 pregnant women with 11,679 deliveries, with new entrants each year. The overall seroprevalence of HTLV for all women differed between ethnic groups and was restricted mainly to the descendents of fugitive slaves of African origin known as Noir-Marron (181 of 4,266, 4.24%) and to Haitian women (12 of 287, 4.18%). A decrease in the biennial seroprevalence of HTLV-I was observed over time among deliveries of the Haitian women (P = 0.037), but it remained stable among Noir-Marron (P = 0.22). Fifteen of the 17 HTLV-I seroconversions occurred in the Noir-Marron, giving an incidence of 0.18 per 100 person-years. The overall seroprevalence of HIV-1 was higher in the Haitian women (10 of 293, 3.41%) than in the Noir-Marron (34 of 4,310, 0.79%) and Amerindians (4 of 552, 0.72%). A highly significant increase in the biennial seroprevalence of HIV-1 was observed among the deliveries of the Noir-Marron (P = 0.0003), but it remained stable among Haitian women (P = 0.44). Ten of the 13 HIV-1 seroconversions were observed in Noir-Marron, giving an incidence rate of 0.12 per 100 person-years. These data demonstrate the differential spreading of these two human retroviruses among pregnant women in different ethnic groups living in the same environment. While HTLV-I, which is highly endemic in groups of African origin, showed a slight decrease over time in a suspected cohort effect, HIV-1 spread rapidly in an epidemic mode, especially in the groups of the lowest socioeconomic levels.

Spatial and Temporal Distribution of the Neutral Polymorphisms in the Last ZFX Intron: Analysis of the Haplotype Structure and Genealogy

With 10 segregating sites (simple nucleotide polymorphisms) in the last intron (1089 bp) of the ZFX gene we have observed 11 haplotypes in 336 chromosomes representing a worldwide array of 15 human populations. Two haplotypes representing 77% of all chromosomes were distributed almost evenly among four continents. Five of the remaining haplotypes were detected in Africa and 4 others were restricted to Eurasia and the Americas. Using the information about the ancestral state of the segregating positions (inferred from human-great ape comparisons), we applied coalescent analysis to estimate the age of the polymorphisms and the resulting haplotypes. The oldest haplotype, with the ancestral alleles at all the sites, was observed at low frequency only in two groups of African origin. Its estimated age of 740 to 1100 kyr corresponded to the time to the most recent common ancestor. The two most frequent worldwide distributed haplotypes were estimated at 550 to 840 and 260 to 400 kyr, respectively, while the age of the continentally restricted polymorphisms was 120 to 180 kyr and smaller. Comparison of spatial and temporal distribution of the ZFX haplotypes suggests that modern humans diverged from the common ancestral stock in the Middle Paleolithic era. Subsequent range expansion prevented substantial gene flow among continents, separating African groups from populations that colonized Eurasia and the New World.

Comparison of HHV-6 antibody titers in West Africa and the Caribbean

Human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) infection seems to be ubiquitous early in life, but antibody responses vary by geographic area. We compared HHV-6 antibody titer in 123 West African and 122 Caribbean serum samples. A quantitative immunofluorescence assay (IFA) using antigens derived from an HSB-2 cell line was used to test for IgG HHV-6 (GS strain) antibodies. The prevalence of HHV-6 antibodies was high (98%) in both sites. African samples had a significantly higher geometric mean titer (GMT: 697) than did Caribbean samples (GMT: 99). There was no difference between males (GMT: 260) and females (GMT: 270) overall. Children up to and including 9 years old had significantly higher titers (GMT: 483) than did all others (GMT: 237), and female children tended to have higher titers than did male children. In both areas there was a trend towards highest titer at younger age, followed by a decrease in titer during adulthood and middle age, and a secondary rise in titer in the oldest age group. Environmental and host factors may explain these geographic differences in antibody responses between two groups of African origin.