Active clinical trials for "Malaria"

Malaria is one of the major causes of illness and mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Ghana, malaria is the most important cause of morbidity and accounts for about 40% of outpatient contacts. Chemoprophylaxis and insecticide-impregnated bed nets are used for malaria control in pregnancy.Chloroquine is administered within the ANC package at health facilities in Ghana. However, many pregnant women in rural,low-income communities do not report for ANC or report late thereby increasing their risk of morbidity and mortality. Reasons for this include inaccessibility and high cost. As the gap between urban and rural health care and socioeconomic circumstances increase, malaria control remains the major challenge of the health sector. A facility-based intervention alone is not sufficient to have a significant or sustained impact on malaria control in pregnancy. Alternative strategies are needed for the delivery of malaria interventions to pregnant women in rural areas in Ghana. The overall objective of this study is to develop alternative strategies for community involvement for delivery of malaria interventions to pregnant women in rural Ghana. The project will be conducted in the Afigya Sekyere district in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Interviews and focus group discussions will be conducted with pregnant women and community members focusing on local knowledge on control of malaria in pregnancy and factors influencing utilization of antenatal services. Women in their first and second pregnancies who are permanently resident in the study area will be included in the study using IPT with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP). The study population will be randomized to:Group 1 will receive clinic-supervised IPT-SP and daily folate/iron supplementation and Group 2 will access IPT-SP with daily folate/iron supplementation from trained traditional birth attendants (TBA). Midwives and TBAs will be trained in preparing thick blood smears and placenta biopsies for parasitological examination. Parasitaemia and Hb will be measured at entry and at delivery and fever episodes during pregnancy will be recorded. Study participants will be followed for adverse reactions within a week after drug administration. The effectiveness of community-based IPT for the control of malaria in pregnancy will be determined. The endpoints of the study will be birth weight, maternal anaemia, fever episodes and prevalence of peripheral and placental parasitaemia in the groups.

This trial is currently evaluating one candidate malaria vaccine, FMP1/AS02A. This candidate malaria vaccine is being developed for the routine immunization of infants and children living in malaria-endemic areas. This vaccine would offer protection against malaria disease due to the parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Prior to the start of this study, FMP1/AS02A had been given to approximately 60 malaria-naïve adults and 40 adults and 90 children living in malaria-endemic regions. This study will investigate whether the candidate vaccine prevents malaria disease for 6 months post-vaccination. One half of the enrolled subjects will receive FMP1/AS02A and the other half rabies vaccine (RabAvert).

The purpose of this study is to determine whether a new investigational malaria vaccine is safe, well tolerated and effective against experimental exposure to malaria when given to healthy people with no previous exposure to malaria. The vaccine consists of a modified form of a relatively common virus, adenovirus, that has been rendered incapable of replicating itself and modified to deliver the malaria gene of interest to the body's cells allowing the cell to manufacture the protein encoded by the gene and present it to the body's immune system in a more natural and presumably effective way.

To evaluate the prophylactic activity of orally administered DB289 against Plasmodium falciparum in non-immune healthy volunteers who are challenged by the bite of five P. falciparum-infected Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes

The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of Intermittent Preventive Treatment in Infants (IPTi) with Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine to reduce the numbers of malaria attacks, episodes of anemia, and the overall morbidity and mortality

GSK Biologicals in partnership with the Malaria Vaccine Initiative at PATH is developing a candidate malaria vaccine GSK 257049 for the routine immunization of infants and children living in malaria endemic areas. The vaccine would offer protection against malaria disease due to the parasite Plasmodium falciparum. The vaccine would also provide protection against infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV). In order to integrate the malaria vaccine into the EPI regimen in malaria-endemic regions, a new variant RTS,S/AS02D (0.5 mL dose) has been developed. The Protocol Posting has been updated in order to comply with the FDA Amendment Act, Sep 2007.

The purpose of this trial is to compare the acceptability, efficacy and safety of three alternative drug regimens for use for seasonal Intermittent Preventive Treatment to prevent malaria in children. Children aged 2 months to 5 years will be randomized to receive IPT with one of three regimens during the transmission season: sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) plus amodiaquine, show to be highly effective for IPT in a recent trial; SP plus piperaquine, used for malaria prophylaxis in China for many years; or Duocotexcin (a combination of piperaquine with an artemisinin).

This study examines the ability of two new malaria vaccines (FP9-PP and MVA-PP) to prevent the development of malaria infection after controlled exposure to the parasite. Volunteers for this trial will have received these vaccines in the preceding trial VAC027.1.

Phase I/II Trial of a Malaria Vaccine, FMP011/AS01B, in Adults Living in the United States of America.

Malaria is a disease that affects many people in Africa. Malaria is caused by germs spread by mosquito bites. The purpose of this study is to compare the number of children who get malaria after receiving an experimental malaria vaccine (FMP2.1/AS02A) to the number of children who get malaria after receiving a vaccine for rabies (an approved vaccine that does not prevent malaria). The children will be assigned to one of the vaccine groups by chance. Participants and doctors will not know which vaccine was given. Study participants will include 400 children, ages 1-6 years, living in Bandiagara, Mali. Children will receive 3 vaccine doses, by injection, to their upper arm. Study procedures will include physical exams and several blood samples. Participants will be involved in the study for 26 months.