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Editorial Note

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Editorial Note: Multiple Pathogens Including Potential New Species in Tick Vectors in Côte d’Ivoire

  • The PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Editors

The PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Editors issue this notice to update the previously published Expression of Concern on this article [1–3].

Following the publication of the article and Expression of Concern [1,3], PLOS investigated concerns pertaining to the reported ethical approval and the article’s adherence to PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases’ research ethics policies.

Specifically, concerns were raised that the ethics statement of this article [1] states that the study was approved by the Côte d'Ivoire Ethics committee under agreement N°86/MSLS/CNERN-dkn, but the reported ethics approval document was also cited in [4, 5, retracted in 6] despite there appearing to be differences in the subjects, the samples collected, and the sample collection period reported in these articles.

PLOS received a copy of the ethics approval document N°86/MSLS/CNERN-dkn as part of the editorial investigation in [4–6]. This document was issued on October 31, 2014, by the Ministère de la Santé et de la Lutte contre le SIDA of the République de Côte d’Ivoire for a study titled “Identification des agents pathogènes responsables de la fièvre dans la région de Yamoussoukro, République de Côte d’Ivoire”.

PLOS reviewed the documentation provided by the institution and concluded that the documents did not fully resolve the journal’s concerns. Therefore, the Expression of Concern stands.

References

  1. 1. Ehounoud CB, Yao KP, Dahmani M, Achi YL, Amanzougaghene N, Kacou N’Douba A, et al. Multiple Pathogens Including Potential New Species in Tick Vectors in Côte d’Ivoire. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2016;10(1):e0004367. pmid:26771308
  2. 2. Ehounoud CB, Yao KP, Dahmani M, Achi YL, Amanzougaghene N, Kacou N’Douba A, et al. Correction: Multiple Pathogens Including Potential New Species in Tick Vectors in Côte d’Ivoire. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2016;10(2):e0004455. pmid:26849647
  3. 3. The PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Editors. Expression of Concern: Multiple Pathogens Including Potential New Species in Tick Vectors in Côte d’Ivoire. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2022;16(12):e0010924. pmid:36512528
  4. 4. Mourembou G, Fenollar F, Lekana-Douki JB, Ndjoyi Mbiguino A, Maghendji Nzondo S, Matsiegui PB, et al. RETRACTED: Mansonella, including a Potential New Species, as Common Parasites in Children in Gabon. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2015;9(10):e0004155. pmid:26484866
  5. 5. The PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Editors. Expression of Concern: Mansonella, including a Potential New Species, as Common Parasites in Children in Gabon. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2022;16(12):e0010921. pmid:36512531
  6. 6. The PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Editors. Retraction: Mansonella, including a Potential New Species, as Common Parasites in Children in Gabon. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2026;20(4):e0014178. pmid:41945517

Citation: The PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Editors (2026) Editorial Note: Multiple Pathogens Including Potential New Species in Tick Vectors in Côte d’Ivoire. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 20(5): e0014341. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0014341

Published: May 20, 2026

Copyright: © 2026 The PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Editors. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.