Active clinical trials for "Malaria"

Phase I/IIa double-blind randomized (adjuvant)-controlled trial. 16 volunteers are randomized to receive two doses of either 30 µg of PfCS102 formulated in Montanide ISA 720 (verum) or ISA 720 alone (control), 60 days apart. Two weeks after the 2nd immunization, 14 volunteers are challenged with bites of 5 infected mosquitoes using the NF54 strain of P. falciparum. The main outcome will be the length of time between artificial challenge and development of blood stage parasitaemia detected by microscopy performed twice a day.

Malaria is a major contributor of disease burden in Sub-Saharan Africa: 90% of global cases occur there, and pregnant women and children under 5 years are the most vulnerable. Malaria in pregnancy increases risks of abortion, stillbirth, prematurity, intrauterine growth retardation and maternal anemia, and is associated with higher risk of low birth weight and perinatal, neonatal and infant mortality. For prevention and control of malaria in pregnancy, the WHO recommends Intermittent Preventive Treatment (IPT) with antimalarial drugs, insecticide treated nets (ITNs) and effective treatment of malaria and anemia. HIV in pregnancy increases the risks of malaria, and it seems that the efficacy of IPT with the drug sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) is decreased in HIV+ pregnant women. Malaria prevention in pregnancy in Zambia relies on ITNs and IPT with SP. Daily prophylaxis with cotrimoxazole (CTX) effectively reduces mortality and morbidity in HIV+ individuals, and antibiotic therapy during pregnancy might help to decrease adverse pregnancy outcomes. CTX prophylaxis improves birth outcomes in HIV+ women with CD4<200/µl: a study concluded that antenatal provision of CTX was beneficial for HIV+ pregnant women with low CD4 but not in women with ≥200/µl (however, this study was carried out in an area with very low risk of malaria , and CTX may have a different effect depending on endemic conditions). The WHO recommends daily CTX in addition to ARVs, to prevent opportunistic infections in all HIV+ patients. Concurrent administration of SP and CTX may increase the incidence of severe adverse reactions in HIV+ patients, so WHO has promoted CTX prophylaxis as an alternative to SP for the IPT in immuno-compromised pregnant women. Unfortunately, there is insufficient information on the effectiveness of daily CTX for preventing malaria infection in pregnancy: so, SP is still the only antimalarial recommended by WHO for this purpose. With the increase in SP resistance and with the newer antimalarials still being studied for safety and efficacy in pregnancy, CTX could be an alternative for SP in reducing malaria and malaria-related morbidity and mortality in pregnancy. This study will try to to see if in HIV- and HIV+ pregnant women, CTX is not inferior to SP in reducing placental parasitaemia. Such information is needed to issue updated, effective guidelines on malaria prevention in pregnancy

The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of zinc and/or vitamin A supplementation in reducing the risk of placental malaria and its associated adverse pregnancy outcomes.

This study will evaluate the safety and immune response of children to an experimental malaria vaccine called AMA1-C1/Alhydrogel® (Registered Trademark) + CPG 7909. Malaria is an infection of red blood cells caused by a parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, that is spread by certain kinds of mosquitoes. It affects at least 300 million people worldwide each year, with more than 1 million deaths, mostly among children less than 5 years of age in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is the leading cause of death and illness among the general population of Mali in West Africa. Increasing drug resistance to P. falciparum and widespread resistance of mosquitoes to pesticides are reducing the ability to control the disease through these strategies. AMA1 C1 is made from a synthetic protein similar to a P. falciparum protein. It is combined with Alhydrogel and CPG 7909, substances added to vaccines to make them work better. Children between 1 and 4 years of age who live in Bancoumana, Mali, and are in general good health may be eligible for this study. Candidates are screened with a medical history, physical examination, and blood and urine tests. Participants are randomly assigned to receive three injections (shots) of either AMA1-C1 or a control rabies inactivated vaccine called Imovax® (Registered Trademark). The shots are given in the thigh muscle on study days 0, 56 and 180. After each shot, participants are observed in the clinic for 30 minutes. They return to the clinic for a physical examination six or seven times between each shot and then four more times over a 9-month period after the last shot. Blood samples are drawn at several of these visits to check for side effects of the vaccine and to measure the response to it. The total duration of the study is 21 months. ...

The aim of the study is to determine whether piperaquine plus dihydroartemisinin (DHA-PQ) is as effective, and better tolerated, than sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine plus amodiaquine (SP+AQ), when used for seasonal Intermittent Preventive Treatment (IPT) to prevent malaria in children aged 3 to 59 months in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso and to determine the pharmacokinetics of piperaquine in children.

This will be a randomized, single-blinded, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy, safety and tolerability of antimalarial regimens in healthy schoolchildren. The primary objective of the study is to compare the efficacy of different combination antimalarial regimens, including amodiaquine + sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (AQ+SP), dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP), and placebo, to SP for intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) in schoolchildren, as measured by risk of parasitaemia (unadjusted by genotyping) after 42 days of follow-up. This will assess both the efficacy for treatment of asymptomatic infections and the efficacy for prevention of new infections.

Intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) offers a way of preventing malaria infection without compromising the development of malaria immunity or encouraging drug resistance. The effect of IPT in children in the prevention of malaria has been evaluated in a number of trials in areas of seasonal malaria transmission. Results from these trials have shown that IPTc provided between 40% - 86% protection against clinical malaria. In 2006, a trial that compared two methods of IPTc delivery was carried out in Upper River Division, The Gambia. Preliminary results of the trial have shown that the treatment was very effective as only 4% (45/1133) of the children seen at the end of year cross-sectional survey were parasitaemic. Tolerability was assessed in a subset of 1100 children and the results showed that about 13.5% of children developed mild to moderate vomiting. Malaise was present in about 10% of the study subjects. Severe adverse events were rare. Thus it is important to investigate if other drug regimens might be equally effective in preventing malaria but less likely to cause adverse events. During the 2007 malaria transmission season, 1009 children aged 1-5 years will be individually randomized to receive amodiaquine plus SP, piperaquine plus SP or Artekin TM (dihdroartemisinin plus piperaquine) at monthly intervals on three occasions during the months of September, October, and November. To determine the prevalence of side effects following drug administration participants in each treatment group will be visited at home three and seven days after each round of drug administration and a side effects questionnaire completed. To help establish whether these adverse events are drug related, the same questionnaire will be administered after each treatment round, to 286 age-matched children who are not part of the trial. The primary ends points will be the incidence of adverse events.

Recent, randomized controlled trials conducted in areas of perennial malaria transmission have shown that intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) given at the time of vaccination reduced the incidence of the first episode of malaria and severe anaemia during the first year of life by more than 50% without there being any rebound in the subsequent year. However, in countries such as Mali, where malaria is highly seasonal and prevalent in older children, IPT in infants may not be the optimum way in which to use antimalarial drugs to prevent malaria. An alternative approach is to give intermittent preventive treatment to children at risk just during the rainy season. Here we propose (i) to evaluate the impact of two seasonal IPT (sIPT) with Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) given at 8 weeks interval on the incidence of malaria disease in children of 6 months to 10 years in an area of seasonal transmission, in Kambila, Mali; (ii) to assess the impact of this strategy on the in vivo response of P. falciparum to SP; (iii) to assess the potential rebound effect of this strategy on the subsequent transmission season after the cessation. Children 6 months-10 years in Kambila, Mali will randomized to receive either IPT with SP twice at 8 weeks interval or no IPT during the transmission season and will followed up for 12 months. Subjects will be also followed during the subsequent transmission season to assess possible rebound effect. Clinical malaria cases will be treated with SP and followed for 28 days to assess the in vivo response during both periods.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the safety of a candidate malaria vaccine (PfAMA-1) at 3 doses given at monthly intervals of 2 different dosages of AMA-1 (10 μg or 50 μg ) adjuvanted either with alum hydroxide or AS02A or Montanide ISA 720 in healthy adults not previously exposed to the parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

The purpose of this study is to assess the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of two dose levels (1x10^10 and 5x10^10 virus particles (vp)) of the adenovirus serotype (Ad) Ad35.CS.01/Ad26.CS.01 prime-boost malaria candidate vaccine, followed by an evaluation of the protective efficacy of the higher dose level in an experimental malaria challenge. The study will be in 3 phases: a dose escalation / vaccination phase in which both dose levels will be tested a malaria challenge phase in which only subjects receiving the Ad35.CS.01/Ad26.CS.01 5x10^10 vp dose level, together with six infectivity control subjects, will be exposed to experimental challenge with Plasmodium falciparum a long term follow up phase in which all subjects who received active vaccine from both dose levels and/or malaria challenge will be included