Active clinical trials for "Malaria"

A community-based, open-label, cluster-randomised longitudinal study in which children are randomized according to village health worker catchment areas comparing the safety and effectiveness of repeated treatments with artemether-lumefantrine (AL) over a 3-year period in children 4-48 months to that of repeated treatment with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DHA-PPQ).

Artemisinin combination therapies (ACT) are currently recommended for malaria treatment. Artemether-lumefantrine(A-L) and Artesunate+amodiaquine (A+A) have been the most commonly adopted of the recommended ACT regimens. In Ghana, A+A is the current first-line antimalarial treatment in Ghana, but there has been 1 efficacy report of this regimen in Ghana till date. Moreover, the safety of repeated treatments with ACT has been little studied. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of A+A vs. A-L, as well as the safety of repeated treatments of these regimens in a longitudinal trial in which recruited children will be followed up for 1 year.

Cerebral malaria is the most lethal complication of P.falciparum infection with a mortality rate between 5 and 40%. Intravenous quinine remains the recommended treatment for cerebral malaria. However its administration is often not feasible due to lack of simple equipment or trained staff. When referral is not possible, a viable alternative is needed. The intrarectal route is of interest in children since it is painless and simple. Studies of the efficacy of intrarectal quinine in the treatment of cerebral malaria are limited. The study aims to establish the efficacy of intrarectal quinine in the treatment of childhood cerebral malaria.

The National Malaria Programme in Guinea-Bissau recommends paracetamol for all children treated for malaria. We, the investigators of the Bandim Health Project, want to evaluate whether this treatment has any effect on: the well-being of the child; the parasite clearance time; and the rate of a re-appearance of parasites during 35 days of follow-up. Children presenting at Bandim Health Centre with malaria will be treated with chloroquine plus paracetamol or chloroquine plus placebo. Blood samples will be obtained daily for the first 4 days and then once a week until day 35.

It is unknown whether malaria or malaria treatment affects COVID-19 severity, immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 virus, or viral loads and/or duration of shedding and therewith the onwards spread of SARS-COV-2. An observational cohort study will be conducted in 708 newly diagnosed COVID-19 patient of all ages in western Kenya and Burkina-Faso. They will be enrolled in hospitals with COVID-19 testing facilities from a source population screened for SARS-CoV-2 (N~4,720). Approximately 142 of the 708 COVID-19 patients are expected to be co-infected with malaria. They will be enrolled in the nested malaria treatment trial and randomized to receive 3-days of artemether-lumefantrine (the current standard of care) or pyronaridine-artesunate, a highly effective antimalarial with known antiviral properties against SARS-CoV-2 in-vitro, that is newly registered and being rolled out in Africa. Disease progression will be assessed and nasal swabs and blood samples will be taken during home/clinic visits on days 1, 3, 7, 14, 21, 28, and 42. Patients self-isolating will be phoned daily in between scheduled visits for the first 14 days to assess signs and symptoms. Hospitalisation, self-isolation and home-based care will follow national guidelines. The WHO clinical progression scale and FLU-PRO plus scales will be used to compare disease progression between COVID-19 patients with and without malaria, and by malaria. Other endpoints include seroconversion/reversion rates, chemokine/cytokine responses, T and B cell responses, viral load and duration of viral carriage. Infection prevention and control (IPC), including the use of personal protection equipment (PPE), and measures for patient transport will follow national guidelines in each country. Written informed consent/assent will be sought. The study is anticipated to start in January 2021 and last for approximately 18 months.

In this study, the investigators will explore the reasons for the apparently lower proportion of severe COVID-19 cases in many sub-Sahara African countries. Indeed, despite fragile health care systems, the burden of COVID-19 on the African continent seems substantially lower than initially feared. Many potential reasons for this discrepancy have been formulated: the different population age structure, experience of African nations with previous pandemics, warmer climate, and genetic preposition. However, another compelling hypothesis is that of trained immunity by endemic pathogens, such as plasmodia. According to this hypothesis, innate immune activation by endemic pathogens would prime a more robust initial innate immune response to SARS-CoV-2 and could therefore protect against severe COVID-19. To explore this, the investigators propose conducting a case-control study in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Kinshasa is an area with mixed prevalence of malaria and the area in DRC most affected by COVID-19. In this setting, the investigators will compare cases of severe COVID-19 with controls that have non-severe COVID-19 and that are matched for age, sex, and health zone. The aim is to compare pre-existing immunity against malaria, both cellular and humoral between the two groups.

Background: - Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite that infects the blood. It affects millions of people every year and frequently harms or kills pregnant woman and infants. Researchers are looking for treatments that may help pregnant women in areas of the world where malaria is common. To do so, they want to collect blood and other samples from pregnant women in south-central Uganda. They will also collect samples from newborn babies if the mother agrees to it. Objectives: - To collect biological material such as blood samples from pregnant women and newborns. Eligibility: Women between 14 and 45 years of age who are pregnant or are in labor. Participants will be from the Kalisizio area of south-central Uganda. Design: Women who are pregnant will provide blood and urine samples. Women who are in labor will allow researchers to collect samples from their baby after the delivery. Samples will be taken of placenta tissue and umbilical cord blood. The baby will also be weighed and measured. Researchers will look at the baby's physical appearance and muscle strength. Treatment will not be offered as part of this study.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of azithromycin as a possible combination partner for fosmidomycin to protect it from its susceptibility to recrudescent infections when used as monotherapy for acute Plasmodium falciparum malaria while retaining its excellent safety profile.

Understanding the extent and regional distribution of CQR vivax malaria and detecting early signs of resistance is critical to prevent the spread of resistant strains, optimize treatment guidelines, and reduce the risk of recurrent and severe malaria. In Vietnam, CQR in P.vivax has been reported sporadically. One study carried out in Binh Thuan province (central-south Vietnam) at the end of the 1990s demonstrated early P.vivax recurrences (7%) by Day 16 after a 3-day CQ treatment. However, in a summary report to World Health Organization (WHO) including data from 11 sentinel sites, from studies conducted between 2006 and 2011 in central and southern Vietnam (total 350 patients), P.vivax is still considered sensitive to CQ. More recently in a cohort study conducted in Quang Nam province (Central Vietnam) in which P.vivax patients were treated radically with CQ and primaquine (10-day at 0.5mg/kg/day) following national guidelines, the 28-day failure rate was measured at 3.45% and CQ blood concentrations measured at day of recurrence (>100ng/ml) confirmed resistance in three patients. The current national guidelines for the radical cure regimen of P.vivax infections recommends 3 days of CQ (total 25 mg/kg body weight (bw)) together with 14 days of primaquine at 0.25 mg/kg bw/ day. The current WHO protocol recommends a 28-day follow-up to assess the efficacy of CQ for the treatment of P.vivax infections. However, recurrence of early stage resistant parasites may occur after Day 28 in the presence of CQ blood levels above the minimum efficacy concentration (MEC, ≥100ng/ml) and relapses could occur as early as 36 days after standard CQ treatment. Therefore, in order to confirm CQR it is recommended to extend the follow-up period, to Day 42 or 63 and measure whole blood CQ level at Day 28 and at the time of recurrence. Moreover, it has been shown that emerging drug resistance in P.vivax is associated with delayed parasite clearance after treatment, i.e. some parasites are still detectable at Day 3. The aim of the present study is to assess the in vivo and ex vivo susceptibility of P.vivax to CQ in Central Vietnam following the currently recommended radical cure regimen and using GMP certified CQ.

Malaria remains one of the most common life-threatening illnesses in the tropics with a dramatic toll of more than one million deaths each year. A majority of malaria cases are non-complicated and only few evolve towards severe malaria resulting from the combination of parasite-specific virulence factors and host inflammatory responses. Cerebral malaria (CM) kills more than 1 million African children each year. CM carries a fatality rate of about 20% in adults, higher in children, despite timely and adequate chemotherapy. Moreover, the more rapid clearance of parasitaemia with new antimalarial drugs is not associated with improved survival, suggesting the potential interest for adjunctive therapies in the early phase of the disease. Cerebral malaria leading to seizure and coma is associated with severe intracranial hypertension caused by brain-swelling. Recent imaging and post-mortem findings in adult cerebral malaria have confirmed the presence of diffuse cerebral oedema with thalamic and cerebellar white matter hypoattenuation, diffuse petechial hemorrhages and symmetric ischemic changes involving the thalamus and the cerebellum. However, the nature of the pathogenetic processes leading to cerebral malaria is incompletely understood but mechanisms linking cytokines with endothelial cells activation in the cerebral microvasculature have been recently stressed. The effect of new neuroprotective therapies has not yet been investigated, although the manifestations of cerebral malaria partly share features with neurological stroke or acute non-specific neurological disorders. The hormone erythropoietin (EPO) is probably one of the more enthusiastic drugs in this area. EPO is as a member of type I cytokine superfamily with multiple functions, including a prominent role for erythropoiesis and neuroprotection. Systematically administered EPO crosses the blood brain barrier via the abundant expression of EPO receptors at brain capillaries, and acts as an anti-apoptotic and cytoprotective cytokine. Moreover, EPO prevents inflammation by inhibiting pro-inflammatory cytokines including TNFα, preserves endothelial cells integrity and prevents blood-brain barrier permeability. We propose a randomized clinical trial to investigate the safety and efficacy of EPO in patients presenting cerebral malaria and hospitalized at Gabriel Toure hospital, Bamako, Mali, to reduce the incidence of premature death in hospitalized patients.