Data on immune responses to COVID-19 vaccination in West and Central Africa remain limited, particularly across SARS-CoV-2 variants and vaccine platforms. Using the InVITE cohort in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Liberia, and Mali, we evaluated anti-spike (anti-S) antibody binding to nine SARS-CoV-2 variants in 96 participants equally selected from pre-vaccination assay defined seropositive and seronegative groups. Participants received mRNA, adenovirus-vectored, or inactivated virus vaccines. Anti-S binding was measured before vaccination and two months after completion of the primary series using a Meso Scale Discovery 10-plex assay. Before vaccination, antibody binding was significantly higher against pre-Omicron variants (Ancestral, Alpha, Beta, and Delta) than Omicron variants in both seronegative (fold change [FC] 3.85, 99% CI 3.45–4.17) and seropositive (FC 3.57, 99% CI 3.33–3.84) participants. Seropositive individuals showed greater binding than seronegative individuals across all variants. Two months post-vaccination, mRNA vaccines elicited higher antibody binding than adenovirus-vectored or inactivated vaccines, whereas no significant differences were observed between adenovirus-vectored and inactivated vaccines. Antibody binding remained higher against pre-Omicron than Omicron variants across all vaccine platforms and serostatus groups. These findings provide rare data on variant-specific vaccine-elicited antibody binding responses in West and Central African populations with distinct demographic, epidemiologic, and immunologic background.
Trial registration: Registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05096091, Registration date: 10-26-2021, Clinical trial registry:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05096091?term=NCT05096091rank=1#study-overview
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E. Lusamaki, Ana M. Ortega-Villa, Daouda Camara et al.· Scientific Reports· 0 citations
The 2026 Bundibugyo virus outbreak emerged in a region with frequent conflict, food insecurity, rainforest and mining-related human mobility in Ituri province in the north-eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Existing ecological niche models have identified regions environmentally suitable for orthoebolavirus circulation but do not explicitly account for anthropogenic conditions that shape opportunities for interspecies contact, such as wildlife-to-human, and zoonotic spillover. Here, we update habitat suitability models for three putative orthoebolavirus reservoir bat species and for orthoebolavirus, and develop an integrated spatial spillover risk framework that combines ecological suitability with anthropogenic drivers, including human settlement, mining activity, bushmeat-related activities, forest loss, and conflict. We find that the updated model reveals previously under-predicted suitability in eastern DRC, and that the integration of anthropogenic factors with orthoebolavirus habitat suitability improves the prediction of historical zoonotic spillover locations. Boyce Index (measure of spatial predictive accuracy) increases from 0.78 to 0.97 when ecological suitability was combined with the built environment, while mining- and bushmeat-based scenarios showed the greatest enrichment of observed spillover events. We also find a temporal association of the relative contribution of habitat suitability and anthropogenic factors, with mining showing the largest and most consistent effect over the last decade, and conflict acting as a secondary amplifying factor whose apparent contribution has grown in recent periods. Together, these findings demonstrate that ecological suitability alone does not fully characterize landscapes vulnerable to Ebola zoonotic emergence and highlight the value of integrating environmental and anthropogenic information to strengthen One Health surveillance, epidemic preparedness, and targeted public health interventions in the DRC and neighboring countries.
M. Moir, H. Tegally, D. M. Moges et al.· medRxiv· 0 citations
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