Central Hospital of Yaoundé

HIV treatment has significantly improved with the introduction of potent antiretroviral therapy (ART), particularly dolutegravir (DTG)-based regimens. With suboptimal adherence reported in resource-limited settings (RLS), real-word evidence on DTG-effectiveness within ART clinics is limited. This study assessed virological response, drug resistance profiling and HIV-1 diversity among ART recipients at the Yaoundé Central Hospital (YCH), Cameroon. A facility-based study was conducted at YCH from May-2023 to February-2025. HIV plasma viral load (PVL) was measured by RT-PCR. Viral suppression (VS) was defined as PVL < 1,000copies/mL. Genotypic resistance testing (GRT) was performed for participants with PVL≥1,000copies/mL. Drug resistance mutations (DRMs) were interpreted using Stanford HIVdb v9.8 and statistics were performed with significance at p < 0.05. Among 6,364 participants enrolled (median-age: 50 [IQR:42–59] years; 71

Background: Intrauterine ectopic pregnancies are uncommon but its mortality is about 6-7 times higher than in tubal EP. The aim of this study was to find out the prevalence of intrauterine ectopic pregnancies and identify factors associated with their occurrence. Methods: We conducted a case-control study on a 5-years period at the Obstetrics & Gynaecology departments of the Yaoundé Gynaeco-Obstetric and Paediatric Hospital and Yaoundé Central Hospital. Cases were files of patients with Intrauterine ectopic pregnancies and controls were those with tubal pregnancies (ratio 1:3). Descriptive statistics followed by logistic regression analyses done using the software SPSS version 25.0, statistical significance set at p-value < 0.05. Results: We identified a total of 1014 ectopic pregnancies, amongst which 914 (90.1%) tubal, 78 (7.7%) intrauterine (cornual or interstitial), 13(1.3%) ovarian, and 9(0.9%) abdominal. Only 41 cases were included for analyses (37 excluded) against 123 controls, giving a study population of 164 patients. After multivariate logistic regression analysis, women within age groups 31 - 40 years (aOR = 2.42, 95% CI: 1.23 - 4.74, p = 0.01) and those with per-operative finding of previous ipsilateral salpingectomy (aOR = 6.41, 95% CI: 1.07 - 60.51, p = 0.042) had higher odds of developing cornual or interstitial Pregnancy. Whereas women with past history of PID (aOR = 0.38, 95% CI: 0.17 - 0.82, p = 0.014) were less likely to experience Intrauterine ectopic pregnancies. Conclusion: Intrauterine ectopic pregnancies is fairly common. Risk of cornual or interstitial pregnancy increases with age ≥31 years, previous ipsilateral salpingectomy.

Hypertension is an increasingly common comorbidity among adults living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, yet data from routine HIV clinics in Cameroon remain limited. We examined factors associated with prevalent hypertension among adults receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) at Yaoundé Central Hospital. In this cross-sectional study of 460 participants, hypertension (blood pressure ≥ 140/90 mmHg and/or current antihypertensive treatment) was present in 43.3%. Using robust Poisson regression, older age and obesity were independently associated with higher hypertension prevalence, and family history showed the strongest association (adjusted prevalence ratio 2.83). Cumulative ART duration was not independently associated after adjustment. Weekly fruit and vegetable intake was associated with lower hypertension prevalence, whereas salt/seasoning cube intake and most behavioural factors were not associated after adjustment. Restricted cubic spline analyses did not suggest non-linearity in the relationship between ART duration and hypertension. In this urban HIV care setting, hypertension clustered primarily with conventional cardiometabolic factors rather than time on ART. Integrating systematic blood pressure screening and standardised hypertension management within HIV services, alongside weight management and lifestyle counselling, may help reduce cardiovascular burden among people living with HIV.

Psychoactive substance use among adolescents represents a growing public health concern in sub-Saharan Africa. This study examined alcohol and illegal psychoactive substance use among secondary school adolescents in Yaoundé, Cameroon, with particular attention to associated factors, including family relationships. A school-based cross-sectional study was conducted among adolescents enrolled in Forms 3 to 5 in three secondary schools in Yaoundé. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Quantitative analyses estimated 12-month prevalence and associated factors using robust Poisson regression for alcohol use and complementary log–log regression for illegal psychoactive substance use, complemented by bootstrap resampling and Firth’s penalised regression to assess robustness in a rare-event context. Qualitative open-ended responses were analysed using thematic and lexical co-occurrence approaches (Jaccard C and T coefficients) to explore adolescents’ representations of substances and perceived consequences. A total of 352 adolescents were included (54.3

BACKGROUND: HIV treatment has significantly improved with the introduction of potent antiretroviral therapy (ART), particularly dolutegravir (DTG)-based regimens. With suboptimal adherence reported in resource-limited settings (RLS), real-word evidence on DTG-effectiveness within ART clinics is limited. This study assessed virological response, drug resistance profiling and HIV-1 diversity among ART recipients at the Yaoundé Central Hospital (YCH), Cameroon. METHODS: A facility-based study was conducted at YCH from March-2023 to February-2025. HIV plasma viral load (PVL) was measured by RT-PCR. Viral suppression (VS) was defined as PVL<1,000copies/mL. Genotypic resistance testing (GRT) was performed for participants with PVL³1,000copies/mL. Drug resistance mutations (DRMs) were interpreted using Stanford HIVdb v9.8 and statistics were performed with significance at p<0.05. RESULTS: Among 6,364 participants enrolled (median-age: 50 [IQR:42–59] years; 71% women), 76% (4,811/6364) were on DTG-based regimens. Median ART-duration was 13 [IQR:9.03–17.4] years, including 3.4 [IQR:3–5] years of DTG-exposure in the DTG-based sub-group. Overall, 93.2% (5,932/6,364) participants achieved VS in 2025; 94% among DTG-based versus 91% among DTG-sparing regimens (OR=1.66; p=0.000002). Interestingly, VS was higher with age ³50years (aOR=1.44; p<0.001), DTG-based ART (aOR=1.65; p<0.0001) and DTG-exposure ³3.4years (aOR=1.29; p=0.044). Between 2021-2025 specifically, VS remained consistently high among participants; with those on DTG-based showing significantly higher and more durable VS compared to those on DTG-sparing therapies (relative risk of failure >1 for DTG-sparing throughout). Furthermore, from those virally unsuppressed in 2025, 9% (39/432) were lost-to-follow-up, 22% (94/432) were transfer-out to other health facilities and 65% (232/432) re-suppressed after enhanced adherence counselling; leaving us with 17 participants eligible for GRT (PVL³1000copies/mL). GRT was successful for 70.5% (12/17) and DRMs detected in 83% (10/12), including major DRMs to protease inhibitors (17%), to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (75%) and to non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (83%). CRF02_AG (75%) was the prevailing HIV-1 group M clade, followed by A3, D, and CRF18_cpx (each 8.3%). CONCLUSION: These real-life data reveal viral suppression rates closer to the epidemic control (95%) among DTG-based recipients, especially with older age and DTG-exposure over three years. Considering the broad HIV diversity observed, these findings are essential for modelling the long-term effectiveness of DTG in RLS and beyond. Trial registration: Ethical Clearance Number 2023/022045/CEIRSH/ESS/BC