FEVERS OF UNDETERMINED ORIGIN IN THE CAMP S OF RWANDESE REFUGEES IN THE GOMAS AREA, ZAIRE (SEPTEMBER 1994)

After the outbreaks of cholera, dysenteriae, meningitidis of which whi ch the rwandese refugees have been the victims in August and September 1994 in the camps of the Goma's area (Zaire), the medical teams were confronted with a great number of fevers of unknown origin. In order t o explore the possible etiologies, we have conducted a cases/controls study (n = 96). Clinically, the cases occur more frequently than contr ols headache (p < 0.001), splenomegaly (p = 0.02) and neutropeny (p < 0.001) Serologically, it has been constated non significally differenc e between cases and controls, but prevalence of HIV-1 infections (19 a nd 6 %) and arbovirus (23 and 10 %) infections are very high. Arboviro sis could explain, partially or associated with HN and tuberculosis th e presence of these fevers undeterminated more than malaria or typhus epidemic.