La fièvre de Lassa est une fièvre hémorragique causée par un Arénavirus, le virus Lassa. Celui-ci est endémique dans plusieurs pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest, où il infecte de 100 à 300 000 personnes par an dont 5 à 6 000 succombent. Il n’existe à ce jour aucun vaccin contre ce virus qui représente non seulement un problème de santé publique, mais qui de plus fait partie des agents potentiellement utilisables pour le bioterrorisme.

Sleeping sickness, also known as African trypanosomiasis, is caused by the parasitic flagellate Trypanosoma brucei, which is injected into the body by the tsetse fly. The disease occurs only in the 36 sub-Saharan African countries exposed to the tsetse fly. Following efforts to combat the disease, the number of cases has fallen since the 90s. Currently, although 70 million people live in high-risk areas, there are only less than a thousand new cases per year. However, the relaxation of surveillance could be accompanied by a rise in the number of cases, as observed in Guinea following the Ebola outbreak in 2013. 

Whooping cough, long thought of as a childhood illness, can be severe at any age. This bacterial infection is particularly dangerous, and sometimes even fatal, for unvaccinated or partially vaccinated infants and at-risk individuals such as pregnant women and elderly people.

Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver caused by toxic substances or – in the majority of cases – by viruses. To date, five viruses have been identified that target the liver and cause inflammatory infection. These viruses are referred to by the letters A, B, C, D and E, and vary according to their transmission mode (fecal-oral for A and E, parenteral for B and C) and their aggressive profile.

Sanfilippo syndrome is a rare and intractable neurological disorder of genetic origin. First manifestations in children are delayed cognitive development and behavioral disturbances, which further progressively evolve towards severe psychomotor retardation and polyhandicap. The disease is responsible for premature death in early adulthood.

Malaria is a disease caused by parasites of the Plasmodium genus. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), malaria affected approximately 241 million people worldwide in 2020 and caused 627 000 deaths. The situation is all the more worrying because of the development of parasitic resistance to multiple antimalarial molecules, and increasing levels of insecticide resistance in mosquitoes for several years. A vaccine now exists and is recommended by the WHO.

A new respiratory virus emerged in Saudi Arabia in 2012. It was named MERS-CoV, or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, and it affects the respiratory tract, causing fever and a cough and proving fatal in 30% of cases. The virus has since been reported in several countries throughout the Middle East. In all, 1,219 cases have been diagnosed, leading to 449 deaths. Several cases have been detected in Europe, including two in France in 2013. On May 20, 2015, a case originating in the Middle East was identified in South Korea, and as of June 16, 2015 had indirectly infected 154 people, 19 of them fatally. To date, no specific treatment or vaccine is available for fighting this virus. The current challenge is to contain the epidemic and get research efforts under way to develop a vaccine and a treatment.

Listeriosis is a severe foodborne infection caused by the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes. It can cause septicemia or central nervous system infections. In pregnant women, it can lead to miscarriage, premature delivery or serious neonatal infection.

Leptospirosis is a bacterial disease found throughout the world. Its main reservoirs are rodents, particularly rats, which excrete the bacterium in their urine. In humans the disease may lead to kidney failure, and even death in 5 to 20% of cases.

The Ebola virus causes high fever and bleeding that can often prove fatal. The death rate varies between 30 and 90% depending on the outbreak and virus species. Bats are believed to be the natural reservoir of the Ebola virus. The virus was first discovered in 1976 following outbreaks in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since then, there have been around 20 outbreaks in Central Africa. In December 2013, the virus spread to West Africa, a region that had previously been unaffected by the disease. In 2014, it gave rise to the largest outbreak to date. It has since reemerged on several occasions in the DRC and also in Guinea in 2021. The focus of current research efforts is the continued development of treatments and diagnostic tools for treating and detecting the disease.