There are about 27 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Afghanistan. The country of the clinical trial is determined by the location of where the clinical research is being studied. Most studies are often held in multiple locations & countries.
The assessment intends to investigate the efficacy of psychosocial counseling for the treatment of help seeking individuals with psychosocial problems in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan. Treatment was administered by local counselors who had received specific education and training
In Afghanistan, studies over the past 15 years have shown a high degree of Plasmodium falciparum resistance to chloroquine (80%) and more recently an increasing degree of resistance to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine monotherapy (12%). In 2003 the high failure rate of chloroquine against falciparum malaria led the national malaria treatment programme to switch its recommended first line drug treatment for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria to artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) in the form of Artesunate/Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine (AS+SP). Second line drug treatment is oral quinine (7 days). The aim of this study is to conduct ongoing monitoring of the efficacy of the new combination against P. falciparum in a group of sentinel sites in Afghanistan.
The rationales of a clinical trial comparing intralesional antimonial therapy versus wound care management in patients with old world cutaneous leishmaniasis (OWCL) are the following: 1. The effectiveness of the current mainstay treatment with intralesional antimonials for CL is subject to discussion, especially in L. major lesions which are predominant in Northern Afghanistan 2. The importance of wound care management in patients with OWCL has been emphasized by Gonzalez et al. (2008) and its efficacy is confirmed in the Kabul trial with L. tropica patients. Parallel to the clinical efficacy the trial investigates the cost-effectiveness and -utility of the treatment options under study.
The aim of the randomized double blind trial with 134 patients presenting old world cutaneous leishmaniasis is: - to evaluate the clinical efficacy of electro-thermo-cauterisation (ETC) followed by moist wound treatment versus ETC followed by moist wound treatment plus 0.05 % pharmaceutical chlorite that has been used in three European countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) in wound care management for more than 20 years; - to judge whether early wound care management would present a viable improvement to the actual anti-parasitic treatments mostly neglecting the chronic wound problem and to evaluate its long-term effect on immunity through relapse control 6 months after wound healing.
In areas of which are co-endemic for vivax and falciparum malaria, treatments for the two diseases often differ and this may lead to mistreatment. This places an emphasis on diagnosis at the health service provision level. Diagnosis is also important when malaris endemicity is low - most fevers are not caused by disease. These two issues mean that most malaria and fevers are not adequately treated, even though the drugs may be effective; many patients who do not have malaria are treated for the disease, and patients with malaria may get the wrong treatment for their species. The study aims to test the effectiveness of employing rapid diagnostic tests and will study the effect on correct treatment.
Malaria is a major public health problem in many provinces of Afghanistan the failure rate of chloroquine (CQ) and amodiaquine (AQ) treated Plasmodium falciparum(Pf) malaria has risen to more than 60% overall and as high as 90% in Jalalabad. CQ remains fully effective against P vivax, and sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) remains effective against P falciparum (10-15% of cases fail to cure). The current malaria treatment protocol still continuing CQ for P.vivax and adopted Artmisinine based combination therapy (ACT) for treating (Pf) malaria, as most than 50% malaria has being diagnosed clinically, so due to this and other operational reasons the protocol needs to be simplified. By comparing 56 day PCR corrected cure rate of DHA-PPQ with the standard treatment regimen as primary objective and comparing the safety, gametocytecidal effect and parasite clearance time as secondary objectives, our study titled: Randomized, Open Label, controlled, non-inferiority clinical trial for comparison of Efficacy & safety, will provide scientific evidence to lead the simplification and improvement of the standard malaria treatment regimen in Afghanistan; to adopt a policy of treating both vivax and falciparum malaria with the same drug regimen. With a significance level (α) = 0.05 and a power=80%, the calculated sample size is 274 per study arm. Therefore about1100 patients (274 per study-arm: 548 patients with falciaprum malaria and 548 patients with vivax malaria) will be recruited in Malaria reference Centers (MRCs) of three malaria endemic provinces (Nangarhar in the east, Thakhar in the north-east and Faryab in the north-west of country) after signing written inform consent form, according the inclusion and exclusion criteria and will be treated as out patients by giving the randomized drug dose under observation of study team and followed-up daily for 3 days (as treatment course of either arm is once daily dose for three days) and after than weekly up to day 56. and the study is planed to conducted in 3 provinces of Afghanistan for approximately 2 years. Patients will be assessed clinically as well necessary laboratory tests will be performed and all the bio-medical findings will be recorded in special patient case record form, the electronic form of which will be broth to Trop. Med of Mahidol University for final analysis. The patients will be receiving the reasonable transportation cost for follow-up visits as well as one bed-net at the end of enrollment.
Background: Pneumonia is the leading cause of childhood mortality, accounting for 19% of the 10.6 million deaths that occur each year1. Case-control studies from Ethiopia2 and India3 suggest that sub-clinical vitamin D deficiency may increase ten times the risk of pneumonia in children. We postulate that controlling childhood vitamin D deficiency has the potential to dramatically reduce the incidence of pneumonia and save >700,000 lives each year since vitamin D deficiency is widespread in developing countries. Aim: To investigate whether 3-monthly oral supplementation of 100,000iu vitamin D reduces pneumonia and its consequences among children aged 1-12 months (followed for 18 months), living in a deprived area of Kabul, Afghanistan, where >70% of young children are vitamin D deficient (<8ng/dl). The effect of vitamin D on the incidence of other diseases, in particular diarrhea and rickets will also be investigated. Methods: Randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial: 3000 children will be randomised to receive either 6 doses of vitamin D or placebo. The first dose will be given at the start of autumn and the second and subsequent doses every 3 months thereafter; children will be followed for 18 months. Incidence of pneumonia will be ascertained though weekly home visits (active surveillance) and from attendances and admissions at the trial clinic and wards in the hospital serving the study area (passive surveillance).