Background
Basile Kamgang PhD/HDR, is an Entomologist working on arbovirus and arbovirus vectors in Africa. His career started in 2007 when he was enrolled for a PhD in entomology at laboratory of French Research Institute based at OCEAC in Cameroon. His works were focused on the bio-ecology and population genetics of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in Cameroon. He also did several fieldworks to assess the risk of the spread of dengue, Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever viruses across Africa including Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Central African Republic, Tanzania, Sao Tome and Principe. After defending his PhD thesis in June 2011, he joined the Pasteur Institute in Bangui for a postdoctoral position. He continued to work and develop his skills on vector bionomics and arbovirology. Especially, he worked on temporal patterns of abundance of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus and mitochondrial DNA analysis of Ae. albopictus in the CAR, and genetic characterization of CHIKV, ZIKV and RVFV. He returned to Cameroon in 2015, where he worked as a consultant on a project of Prof Powell from Yale University on genetic diversity of Ae. aegypti, and as postdoctoral scientist in the LSTM Research Unit based at OCEAC. In 2017, he was awarded a Wellcome Trust Training Fellowship. He took advantage of this tremendous opportunity to make important findings and build key skills allowing to progress toward scientific independence. Especially, he demonstrated that Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus from Central Africa can transmit YFV, DENV2, and ZIKV with significant variation according to Aedes species and origin. He also worked as WHO consultant as expert entomologist. Since 2018 he is the Head of the Medical Entomology Department at CRID. Basile has presented his HDR (Associate Professor) at the University of Montpellier, France, in March 2024.
Research:
- Areas of interest:
Arbovirus vectors, vector competence, population genetic, insecticide resistance, bionomics
- Research – an overview of his research areas(s)
His main interest is to decipher the factors leading to the arboviral diseases outbreaks in Central Africa and prepare the region for intervention in case of outbreaks by analysing in depth the vectorial capacity, molecular bases of insecticide resistance, genetic diversity and population structure of arbovirus vectors. His primary program is focused on understanding the process of invasion of Central Africa by the invasive species Ae. albopictus and its impact on the distribution and prevalence of resident species Ae. aegypti.
Contributions to Science
- Invasion of Aedes albopictus in Central Africa and its impact on the resident species aegypti. Aedes albopictus was reported in early 2000 for the first time in Central Africa where Ae. aegypti is a native species. We demonstrated that Ae. albopictus has a distribution limited to around 6ﹾN in this region. We also demonstrated that in sympatric areas Ae. albopictus has become the dominant species and is replacing the resident species Ae. aegypti. In the biggest cities of central Africa such as Douala (Cameroon), Brazzaville (Congo), and Bangui (CAR), we clearly demonstrated Ae. aegypti is predominant in neighbourhoods located in central business districts with higher building density, whereas Ae. albopictus is most prevalent the peri-urban neighbourhoods surrounded by vegetation. doi: 10.1186/s13071-020-04374-x, doi: 10.3390/pathogens9060491, doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007137, doi: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres. doi: 10.1186/s13071-017-2408-x, doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0002590, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2915.2010.00869.x.
- Insecticide resistance profile of two major arbovirus vectors Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in central Africa. We showed that aegypti and Ae. albopictus collected from central Africa are highly resistant to DDT and fully susceptible to organophosphates. Meanwhile, moderate to high level of resistance was reported to pyrethroids (deltamethrin and permethrin) and to carbamates with strong variation in resistance profiles according to species and populations. We detected for the first time the F1534C and V410L mutations in Ae. aegypti from Cameroon which confers insecticide resistance to pyrethroids. doi: 10.1186/s40249-020-00769-1, doi: 10.1186/s40249-020-0637-2, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0234572, doi: 10.1186/s13071-017-2408-x, doi: 10.1186/s13071-016-1887-5, doi: 10.1186/1756-3305-4-79, doi: 10.1186/s40249-022-01013-8.
- Genetic diversity of aegypti and Ae. albopictus in Central Africa. We showed that the populations of Ae. albopictus from Central Africa, are very little diversified with the existence of one major haplotype which confirms the recent introduction of this species into the region. While Ae. aegypti from central Africa is strongly diversified and closer to Ae. aegypti formosus than Ae. aegypti aegypti whatever the collection environments. doi: 10.1002/ece3.4278, doi: 10.1111/mec.13866, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0020257.
- Vector competence of aegypti and Ae. albopictus towards dengue, Zika and Yellow fever viruses. We demonstrated that both Aedes species are efficient vectors of DENV, ZIKV and YFV with significant variation according to population origin. We demonstrated for the first time the potential of Ae. albopictus from Central Africa to transmit YFV. Ae. aegypti populations from northern Cameroon were found to be resistant to DENV transmission. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008163, doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007985, doi: 10.1080/22221751.2019.1688097.
- Arboviruses circulating in Central Africa. We evidenced the co-circulation of three dengue serotypes (DENV-1, DENV-2 and DENV-3) in Douala Cameroon and assessed genetic diversity of old strains of CHIKV, ZIKV and RVFV in Central Africa. doi: 10.1159/000499465, doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0005082, doi: 10.1016/j.meegid.2015.04.006, doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0002950, doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010683
- Research Areas:
Arbovirus and Arthropod vectors
- Former PhD Students:
- Aurelie Yougang, University of Yaounde I, Cameroon
- Theodel Adjete Wilson-Bahun, Marien Ngouabi University, The Republic of the Congo
- Armel Tedjou, University of Yaounde I, Cameroon
- Current PhD Student:
- Christophe Rostand Keumeni, University of Yaounde I, Cameroon
Other relevant expertise, professional memberships, etc
- 2023-Present : GDRI-Sud Groupement de Recherche sur les Arthropodes Vecteurs en Afrique CentRale (GRAVIR)
- 2021-Present: Member French-speaking network on Neglected Tropical Diseases
- 2019-Present: Member Pan-African Mosquito Control Association, Cameroon chapter
- 2019-Present: Member West African Aedes surveillance network
- 2018-Present: Member Technical Advisory Vector Control Group-Cameroon
Some selected publications
My Bibliography: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=kamgang+b
- Kamgang B, Acântara J, Tedjou A, Keumeni C, Yougang A, Ancia A, Bigirimana F, Clarke SE, Gil VS, Wondji C. Entomological surveys and insecticide susceptibility profile of Aedes aegypti during the dengue outbreak in Sao Tome and Principe in 2022. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2024 Jun 3;18(6):e0011903. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0011903.
- H, Yousseu FS, Cosset FL, de Freitas NB, Kamgang B, McCall PJ, Ndip RN, Legros V, Wondji CS. Molecular and serological evidence of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever orthonairovirus prevalence in livestock and ticks in Cameroon. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2023 Mar 28;13:1132495. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2023.1132495.
- Yougang AP, Keumeni CR, Wilson-Bahun TA, Tedjou AN, Njiokou F, Wondji C, Kamgang B. Spatial distribution and insecticide resistance profile of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in Douala, the most important city of Cameroon. PLoS One. 2022 Dec 13;17(12):e0278779. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278779.
- Montgomery M, Harwood JF, Yougang AP, Wilson-Bahun TA, Tedjou AN, Keumeni CR, Kilpatrick AM, Wondji CS, Kamgang B. Spatial distribution of insecticide resistant populations of Aedes aegypti and albopictus and first detection of V410L mutation in Ae. aegypti from Cameroon. Infect Dis Poverty. 2022 Aug 17;11(1):90. doi: 10.1186/s40249-022-01013-8.
- Sado FY, Tchetgna HS, Kamgang B, Djonabaye D, Nakouné E, McCall PJ, Ndip RN, Wondji CS. Seroprevalence of Rift Valley fever virus in domestic ruminants of various origins in two markets of Yaoundé, Cameroon. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2022 Aug 11;16(8):e0010683. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010683.
- Kamgang B, Vazeille M, Tedjou A, Yougang AP, Wilson-Bahun TA, Mousson L, Wondji CS, Failloux AB. Different populations of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) from Central Africa are susceptible to Zika virus infection. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2020 Mar 23;14(3):e0008163. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008163.
- Kamgang B, Wilson-Bahun TA, Yougang AP, Lenga A, Wondji CS. Contrasting resistance patterns to type I and II pyrethroids in two major arbovirus vectors Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in the Republic of the Congo, Central Africa. Infect Dis Poverty. 2020 Mar 2;9(1):23. doi: 10.1186/s40249-020-0637-2.
- Kamgang B, Vazeille M, Armel TN, Wilson-Bahun TW, Yougang AP, Mousson L, Wondji CS, Failloux AB. Risk of dengue in Central Africa: vector competence studies with Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) populations and dengue 2 virus. Plos Neg Trop Dis. 2019 Dec 30;13(12):e0007985.
- Kamgang B, Vazeille M, Yougang AP, Tedjou AN, Wilson-Bahun TA, Mousson L, Wondji CS, Failloux AB. Potential of Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) to transmit yellow fever virus in urban areas in Central Africa. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2019;8(1):1636-1641.
- Tedjou AN, Kamgang B, Yougang AP, Njiokou F, Wondji CS. Update on the geographical distribution and prevalence of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae), two major arbovirus vectors in Cameroon. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2019 Mar 18;13(3):e0007137. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007137.
