Active clinical trials for "Malaria"

In areas of the Sahel sub-region of Africa with intense seasonal malaria transmission, seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and amodiaquine (SP+AQ) has become the standard-of-care for the prevention of malaria in children. Despite the scale-up of SMC across West Africa, the malaria burden remains high. Reasons for this are not well understood, however, it is hypothesized that children eligible for SMC who get malaria may be underdosed or may have not received SP+AQ. Moreover, there are major concerns that the continued use of the SMC strategy may increase selection of AQ and/or SP-resistant Plasmodium falciparum parasites. The overall objective of this observational study are to understand the factors driving malaria among children eligible to receive SMC and whether circulating levels of sulfadoxine (SDX), pyrimethamine (PYR), and AQ are associated with risks of malaria and antimalarial drug resistance.

An antimalarial drug efficacy trial was conducted for artemether-lumefantrine (AL) and chloroquine (CQ) in the three (3) municipalities (Bataraza, Brookes and Rizal) of Palawan. Study subjects are febrile individuals between > 6 months old and 59 years old with confirmed uncomplicated P. falciparum or P. vivax infections. Patients with P. falciparum was treated with Artemether-lumefantrine administered 3 days (Days 0, 1 and 2) according to body weight. Primaquine at 0.75 mg base/kg body weight single dose was given on Day 3. For Plasmodium vivax patients chloroquine were administered according to body weight at a total dose of 25 mg/kg over 3 days (10 mg/kg on Day 0; 10 mg/kg on Day 1 and 5 mg/kg on Day 2), and primaquine following the National Treatment Guidelines. During the period that this report covers, 84 and 75 patients met the inclusion criteria for Pf and Pv respectively. Clinical and parasitological parameters were monitored over a 28-day follow-up period for both drugs. The presence of only 1 Late Clinical Failure (LCF) of P. falciparum parasitemia out of 84 enrolled patients and 2 Late Parasitological Failure (LPF) of P. vivax patients out of 75 enrolled patients within the 28 days follow up suggest that both drugs are still efficacious.

Malaria and malnutrition represent major public health concerns worldwide especially in Sub-Sahara Africa. Despite implementation of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprophylaxis (SMC), an intervention aimed at reducing malaria prevalence among children aged 6- 59 months, the burden of malaria and associated mortality among children below age 5 years remains high in Burkina Faso. This raises the question of what hiding factors may negatively affect the responsiveness of SMC intervention. Malnutrition, in particular micronutrient deficiency, is one of these potential factors that can negatively affect the effectiveness of SMC. Treating micronutrient deficiencies is known to reduce the prevalence of malaria mortality in highly prevalent malaria zone such as rural settings. Therefore, the hypothesis that a combined strategy of SMC together with a daily oral nutrients supplement (Vitamin A-Zinc OR fortified peanut butter-like paste-Plumpy'Doz) will enhance the immune response and decrease the incidence of malaria in this population and at the same time reduce the burden of malnutrition among children under SMC coverage was postulated. Prior to the SMC implementation by the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP), children under SMC coverage will be identified through the Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS). Children will be randomly assigned to one of the three groups (a) SMC + Vitamin A alone, (b) SMC + Vitamin A+ Zinc, or (c) SMC+Vitamin A + Plumpy'Doz. After each SMC monthly distribution, children will be visited at home to confirm drug administration and follow-up for one year. Anthropometric indicators will be recorded at each visit. Blood samples will be collected for thick and thin film and hemoglobin measurement and spotted onto filter paper for further PCR analyses. This project will serve as a pilot of an integrated strategy in order to mutualize resources for best impact. By relying on existing strategies, the policy implementation of this joint intervention will be scalable at country and regional levels.

Malaria represents a major public health concern in sub-Sahara Africa. Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) is one of the largest preventive measures. It consists to administer Amodiaquine+Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine to children aged 3-59 months on a monthly basis during the peak malaria transmission season. Despite its implementation, the burden of malaria is still very high in children under five years old in Burkina Faso. This raises questions about other hidden factors that can negatively affect the effectiveness of SMC intervention. Huge effort aiming at preventing human-vector contact were deployed such as the large-scale distribution of insecticide treated bed nets. Healthy humans are only infected via mosquitos if there are parasites reservoir around. Yet, there is no strategy aiming at protecting healthy humans from parasites reservoir. Under these circumstances, multiples humans sharing the same habitat could continually entertain the transmission cycle despite adequate existing measures. This would obviously jeopardize the expected impact of the SMC and the global effort to control the disease. In such context, we postulate that screening and treating malaria SMC-children's roommates could greatly improve the impact of SMC intervention and reduce malaria transmission in endemic settings. The goal of our study is to improve the impact of SMC intervention in terms of reducing malaria morbidity and mortality in children under five years. Primary objectives include assessing whether SMC + children's roommates screening and treatment with Dihydro-artemisinin-piperaquine (DHAPPQ) is more effective than current routine implementation of SMC alone as well as the assessment of the tolerance and safety of AQSP and DHAPPQ. Secondary objectives include the assessment of the impact of the new strategy on the circulating parasite population in terms of selection of resistant strains and the assessment of determinants such as adherence and acceptability of the strategy. Methodology: The study will be carried out in the Nanoro health district catchment area in Burkina Faso. This will be a randomized superiority trial. The unit of randomization will be the household and all eligible children from a household will be allocated to the same study group to avoid confusion. Households with 3 - 59 months old children will be assigned to either (i) control group (SMC alone) or (ii) intervention (SMC+ roommates screening with standard HRP2-RDT and treatment if positive) or (iii) intervention (SMC+ roommates screening with highly sensitive RDT and treatment if positive). The sample size will be 789 isolated households per arm, i.e. around 1,578 children under CPS coverage and 2,630 roommates expected. They will be followed-up for 24 months to fully cover two consecutive malaria transmission seasons and then two SMC cycles. Children will be actively followed-up during the malaria transmission seasons while in the dry seasons the followed-up will be passive. Conclusion: The project will respond to a major public health concern by providing evidence of the efficacy of a new strategy which should necessarily complement the existing ones to achieve best impact in malaria control and elimination. The project is lifesaving and could be scaled up easily at country and regional level in case of promising results. In addition, if successful, the project will reinforce the capacity of the IRSS/CRUN by offering training opportunities to young researchers.

Background: Half of the world's population is at risk of malaria. Malaria is a disease that affects many people in Mali and other parts of Africa. It is caused by germs spread by mosquito bites. Malaria may be mild. But it can also be serious or can lead to death if it is not diagnosed and treated promptly. Researchers want to learn more about the disease so they can develop new approaches to malaria control. Objective: To collect data on how mosquitoes spread malaria and how many people get malaria in the community by comparing different areas, seasons, and years. Eligibility: Residents of a certain area of Mali who are of any age Design: Participants will be screened with a physical exam and medical history. All participants will have at least 1 visit. They will answer questions about their health and malaria. They may have a physical exam. They will have blood collected. Some participants will have 1 visit every month for 3 years. They will repeat the procedures above. These participants will have mosquitoes collected in their home monthly. They may be able to catch some of the mosquitoes alive or may need to use a spray to kill the mosquitoes. Participants in this part of the study can be up to 65 years old. Some participants will also have about 60 mosquitoes directly feed on their arm or leg for 15-20 minutes each month. These participants must be 5-65 years old.

Background: In high-transmission settings, up to 70% of school-aged children harbour malaria parasites which is mostly asymptomatic, thus, from an epidemiological point of view, they contribute significantly as reservoir to onward malaria transmission to others. In endemic areas, malaria accounts for around 50% of the mortality, 13-50% of all school absenteeism, and causes anaemia in approximately 85 million school-aged children of sub Saharan Africa that also impairs the cognitive development of children. Intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) of pregnant women as well as seasonal malaria chemoprevention in children under the age of five have been implemented in several sub-Saharan countries and have proven to be very effective. However, none of these IPT strategies is targeting school children. A clinical trial is being conducted to expand the IPT by testing effectiveness and safety of two antimalarial drugs Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP) and Artesunate-amodiaquine (ASAQ) in preventing malaria related morbidity in school aged children (IPTsc) living in high endemic areas. Methods: A randomized, open label, controlled trial will enrol 1602 school children aged 5-15 years, who will receive either DP or ASAQ or control (no drug ), using a "balanced block design" with the "standard of care" arm as reference. The interventional treatments are given every 4 months 3 rounds for the first year. A second non-interventional year will assess possible rebound effects. All study-arms receive bed nets, early diagnosis and care for malaria, and praziquantel and albendazole as mass treatment for helminthiasis. The primary endpoint are change from baseline in mean haemoglobin concentration at months 12 and 20 of follow-up and clinical malaria incidence from month 0 till months 12 and 20 of follow up. Adverse events will be monitored throughout the study. Mixed design methods will be used to assess the acceptability, cost-effectiveness and feasibility of this IPTsc as part of a more comprehensive school children health package. Discussion: The national school health programme (NSHP), Tanzania, combines schistosomiasis and soil transmitted helminthes (STH) control package under national schistosomiasis and STH control programme (NSSCP). Malaria intervention using IPTsc strategy may be integrated in NSHP with the same platform as NSSCP, however, there is limited systematic evidence to assess the operational feasibility of this approach. School aged children are a reachable target population in any endemic malaria setting. The suggested strategy will provide effective protection against malaria, hasten either the elimination process and/or diminish the reservoir and burden.

Chloroquine (CQ) is officially used as a first-line drug of Plasmodium vivax malaria in the Philippines. In this study, the therapeutic efficacy of CQ for the treatment of uncomplicated P. vivax malaria in three (3) municipalities (Bataraza, Brooke's Point and Rizal) of Palawan was evaluated using the World Health Organization protocol with a follow-up of 28 days and additional 2 days (Day 31 and 34) for hemoglobin monitoring after primaquine treatment. Study subjects were febrile individuals between > 6 months old and 59 years old with confirmed uncomplicated P. vivax infections. Chloroquine was administered according to body weight at a total dose of 25 mg/kg over 3 days (10 mg/kg on Day 0; 10 mg/kg on Day 1 and 5 mg/kg on Day 2), and primaquine following the National Treatment Guidelines. During the 1 year period that this report covers, there were 8,305 individuals were screened.

Investigators will evaluate approaches using magnetic bead capture, isolation, and surface tension valve transfer of biomarkers to process capillary blood in order to improve the sensitivity of already approved Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) for detection of human malaria infection. Results will be compared to those obtained using unenhanced capillary blood specimens directly applied to approved malaria RDTs. Participants seeking care for possible malaria in Zambia will be recruited to enroll in the study.

Background: Malaria is a disease that affects many people in the country of Mali and other parts of Africa. It is caused by germs that are spread by mosquito bites. Malaria may be mild, but can also be serious or can lead to death if not diagnosed and treated promptly. Children younger than 5 years and pregnant women are at highest risk of malaria. Researchers want to better understand how malaria infection suppresses the immune system. They want to compare a group of adults who receive antimalarial treatment to a group that does not receive it. Objective: To investigate the effect of antimalarial treatment at the beginning of the dry season on the immune system and malaria episodes. Eligibility: Healthy adults ages 18-60 who live in the area of Doneguebougou, Mali. Design: Participants will be screened with a physical exam and health questions. If participants are found to be sick at the screening visit, they will get initial care at the study clinic free of charge. They may get referrals for consultation. Participants will be randomly assigned to a group. One group will get an approved antimalarial drug called Coartem . The other will not receive it. Participants in the Coartem group will take the drug for 3 days. All participants will have blood tests. Al participants will be seen about once a month for about 1 year. At each visit, they will be asked how they are feeling and be examined. Blood will be drawn. If participants become sick at any time, they will come to the clinic to be examined.

BRIEF SUMMARY Canadians often visit areas with malaria where the preventative drug chloroquine no longer works. This leaves Canadians with the choice to use three different drugs to prevent malaria - atovaquone-proguanil, doxycycline, or mefloquine. There are more than 400 cases of malaria reported in Canada each year, a few which result in death. These cases mainly occur in people who do not take malaria pills as directed. Investigators have developed the Ottawa Malaria Decision Aid (OMDA), which is a bilingual (English and French) resource used to support malaria prevention decision-making. The OMDA contains plain language, fact-based information and helps individuals to reflect on their own values and beliefs so that they can make the best decision for their situation. In this randomized control study, the investigators will attempt to find out if using the OMDA before visiting a travel clinic affects decisional conflict and the way pills are taken. Consenting travellers will be assigned to standard care or standard care plus the malaria decision aid. Both groups will complete three questionnaires before and after travel to look at the impact on decisional conflict, preparation for decision-making, decisional regret and pill taking behaviour. Travelers' malaria can be prevented. It is our hope that by using different methods of presenting information, specifically by utilizing the OMDA, there will be an increase in adherence to appropriate malaria prophylaxis which will ultimately result in a decrease in malaria cases that arrive in Canada. This will translate into a decreased use of health care dollars and unnecessary deaths. The Objectives of this study are to evaluate whether the malaria decision aid can be integrated into the pre-travel consultation process and can: improve a traveller's knowledge of malaria and prevention strategies; improve a traveller's preparation for decision-making; decrease decisional conflict; and affect levels of adherence to prescribed malaria chemoprophylaxis. The hypotheses of this study are that: A decision aid will improve the quality of decision-making about malaria chemoprophylaxis by decreasing decisional conflict and increasing knowledge about malaria and malaria pills. Better decision quality will result in a greater level of adherence to prescribed malaria chemoprophylaxis.