Active clinical trials for "Communicable Diseases"

Surgical site infections (SSIs) constitute an important medical and socioeconomic problem worldwide. Despite the fact that the risk factors for SSIs were identified and the continuously increasing medical knowledge in the fields of tissue engineering, molecular biology and microbiology facilitated the development of numerous new recommendations and methods for management, in many cases the available options for successful treatment of post-operative wound infections remain limited. Non-treated or inappropriately treated SSIs often lead to necrosis of the surrounding tissues, wound dehiscence, formation of fistulas, or become sites of origin for systemic infections. Patients are exposed to risk of further complications and hospitalization time extends resulting in increased total treatment costs. Treatment prolongation affects also the quality of life and psychosocial functioning of patients with impaired wound healing. Considering the arguments above, appropriate prevention and management of infected post-surgical wounds is currently one of the priorities for the majority of invasive medical disciplines. Obstetrics constitute a field of medicine in which the issues associated with wound healing are particularly relevant. According to the literature data wound infections occur in approximately 1.8-11.3% of women undergoing caesarean section. Dialkylcarbamoyl chloride (DACC) is a fatty acid derivative that irreversibly binds microorganisms to the dressing fibres as a result of hydrophobic interaction. As the mechanism of DACC action is solely physical no chemical agents are released into the wound bed and the dressing could be safely used by women during puerperal period. The purpose of this randomized controlled study is to compare the effect of DACC impregnated dressing and standard surgical dressing in the prevention of SSIs in adult women following caesarean section. This study will also evaluate pre-, peri- and postoperative risk factors of SSIs and analyze health economics of DACC impregnated dressings for prevention of post-cesarean wound infections.

The study will involve administering a single dose of investigational drug or placebo in ascending dose cohorts. This study is designed to evaluate the safety and tolerability of investigational drug as well as the efficacy of investigational drug versus placebo in adults with primary (first episode) Clostridium difficile infection (CDI).

The purpose of this study is to determine whether FVH1, a DNA-based influenza vaccine, will be safe and generally well tolerated in healthy elderly adult volunteers and will result in greater immunogenicity when used to prime the immune response to a dose of a trivalent inactivated seasonal vaccine.

This study is designed to assess the immunogenicity and safety of typhoid Vi polysaccharide vaccine in Japanese participants to support registration of the product in Japan. Primary Objective: To describe the seroconversion rate (percentage of subjects with at least a 4-fold increase of their Vi antibody titer) between Day 0 before vaccination and Day 28 after vaccination with typhoid Vi polysaccharide (SP093) vaccine in subjects aged 2 years and above. Secondary Objectives: To describe the safety profile of a single dose of typhoid Vi polysaccharide vaccine up to 28 days after vaccination, in subjects aged 2 years and above. To describe the immune response following a single dose of typhoid Vi polysaccharide vaccine in subjects aged 2 years and above.

Two in every three infants in rural areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) suffer from stunting of linear growth by 12 months of age. Stunting presumably results from breast milk supplementation after 6 months of age with complementary foods (CF) that provide inadequate protein and micro-nutrients. Although supplementation with selected micro-nutrients may avoid certain deficiency states, CF with animal source foods may be necessary to avoid stunting. Meat is not readily available in many Central African countries. However caterpillars, which are locally available and abundant, are a common staple in adult diets and may be a suitable substitute for animal source proteins in CF. The investigators developed a cereal made from dried caterpillars that has a nutrient content that appears to be ideal for CF and demonstrated maternal and infant acceptability. This study will investigate the efficacy in prevention of stunting of growth resulting from inadequate complementary foods. A sub-study will evaluate the biologic effects of the caterpillar cereal to determine whether caterpillar cereal prevents iron deficiency anemia, reduces the incidence of neurodevelopmental impairment or infectious diseases.

Recurrent urinary tract infections (RUTIS) continue to be a major health problem in women and are now complicated by increasing antibiotic resistance. New preventive approaches are needed. Because most women with RUTI lack the normal protective Lactobacillus (LB) in their vaginal flora, we hypothesized that restoration of LB would reduce RUTIS. In this trail, women with recent UTI are randomized to receive either LB or placebo vaginal capsules and are followed for side effects, for colonization with LB and for occurrence of RUTI over hte next four months.

The objective of the study is to determine the efficacy and safety of 0.5% and 2% PRO 2000/5 gels compared to placebo in preventing vaginally acquired HIV infection.

Bladder dysfunction occurs at some time in most patients with multiple sclerosis and these patients are prone to have recurrent urinary tract infections. Cranberry has been traditionally used for the treatment and prophylaxis of urinary tract infections but there is no reliable randomized controlled trial demonstrating evidence of cranberry's utility in this disease. The aim of our study is to assess the efficacy and safety of cranberry in the prophylaxis of urinary tract infections in patients with multiple sclerosis with a prospective randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled clinical trial.

The primary research question is whether interventions to prevent caregiver and system errors will increase the proportion of laparotomy patients who receive recommended measures to prevent surgical site infections.

Acute respiratory tract infections are among the most common problems of childhood, particularly among infants and children younger than 3 years, and account for most antibiotic prescriptions to children. Most of these infections are self-limited and do not require medical intervention; however, the symptoms overlap significantly with those of severe viral or bacterial infections. At the hospital Emergency Department (ED), medical assessment, prescription of antibiotics (unnecessarily if the infection is viral), and a series of investigations (e.g., blood work, X-rays) often take place before a decision on patient management and possible hospital admission can be made. Such procedures lead to intense use of human health resources (nursing, laboratory and radiology staff) and hospital facilities. The literature suggests that a prompt single viral diagnosis improves decision-making. To our knowledge, no-one has performed a controlled trial to examine the impact of a rapid, multi-viral detection test like VIRAP, or the impact of the timing of such a test, on management of children with flu-like illnesses in the ED. Our objective is to determine if use of our new viral detection program, VIRAP, for rapid testing for viral respiratory infections right after triage will improve patient management and resource use in the ED. We will test the hypothesis that availability of VIRAP at triage to support rapid diagnosis of viral infection in children at BCCH will (i) reduce the waiting time in the ED; (ii) improve decision making regarding diagnostic investigations and specimen collection; and (iii) decrease antibiotic prescriptions. Study completed and manuscript accepted for publication in the Journal of Pediatrics.