There are about 279 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Ethiopia. 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.
Reactive and proactive case detection measures are widely implemented by national malaria elimination programs globally. Similarly, the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health decided to include reactive case detection (RCD) and targeted mass drug administration (tMDA) approaches as part of their elimination strategy, along with rigorous evaluation. This study aims to evaluate the impact on annual parasite incidence (API) and cost-effectiveness of implementing tMDA and RCD within a 100-meter radius of passively detected index case, compared with standard of care in the control arm. In addition, cross-sectional surveys will measure the change in malaria prevalence over the two-year study intervention period. The aim is to generate evidence to inform Ethiopia's national strategy for malaria elimination.
Maternal mortality is still high in Ethiopia. Antenatal care (ANC), use of skilled delivery attendants and postnatal care (PNC) services are key maternal health care services that can significantly reduce maternal mortality. However, interventions applied to the continued utilization of these key maternal heath services in a continuum of care approach (i.e. early initiation of ANC and continued utilization up to four plus vists, health facility delivery attended by skilled health care providers and attending three PNC visits) were not well applied and studied. Hence, the purpose of this study is to test the effectiveness of checklist based box system interventions on improving utilization of maternal health service (Antenatal care, skilled birth attendance and postnatal care) utilization.
Erythema Nodosum Leprosum (ENL) is a painful, debilitating complication of leprosy. Patients often require high doses of corticosteroids for prolonged periods. Thalidomide is expensive and not available in most countries. The use of corticosteroids for long periods is associated with adverse effects and mortality. It is a priority to identify alternative agents to treat ENL. Methotrexate (MTX) is a cheap, widely used medication which has been reported to be effective in ENL resistant to steroids and thalidomide.
Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of enhanced malaria cases detection using molecular testing (LAMP) on maternal and infant morbidity and mortality in a prospective study design. A pragmatic randomized control diagnostic trial will be conducted from October 2020 until March 1 2022 in pregnant mothers at sites in Ethiopia. Both symptomatic and asymptomatic first and early second trimester pregnant women will be included in the study and individually randomized to either standard of care or enhanced cased detection arms using LAMP for malaria. Women (n=2583) will be enrolled during a seven-month period encompassing the peak transmission seasons and then followed until delivery. In the standard of care arm, venous blood sample will be collected from each study participant and the presence of Plasmodium infection will be diagnosed by microscopy in symptomatic patients. Pregnant women who test positive for malaria will be referred and treated for malaria with quinine or artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) as per national guidelines. In the intervention arm, mothers who are symptomatic or asymptomatic will be tested by a commercially available CE-approved LAMP malaria test and microscopy/RDT for malaria at each clinic visit and treated if positive by any test. Pregnant mothers who require treatment will be referred and treated with either quinine or artemisinin combination therapy (ACTs) as per national guidelines. The primary outcome is the proportion of deliveries with low birth weight based on WHO definition, with secondary outcomes of:(i)absolute birth weight; (ii) maternal hemoglobin;(ii) neonatal hemoglobin at birth;(iv) neonatal mortality; (v) stillbirth; and (vi) prematurity in each arm of the study.
In Ethiopia, great majorities (95%) of households rely on solid biomass fuels such as wood, muck, crop residues, and charcoal burned in highly polluting stoves to meet the basic household energy needs with its severe health consequences due to emission of toxic indoor air pollutants. Correspondingly, household air pollution (HAP) from biomass fuel use is now estimated to be responsible for nearly 3.5 million premature deaths annually, with the highest disease burdens experienced by countries in sub-Saharan Africa. HAP ranks as the highest environmental risk factors to premature deaths globally and 2nd leading risk factor next to childhood underweight in most of sub-Saharan Africa countries as well as 3rd leading risk factor of disease next to childhood underweight, and suboptimal breastfeeding in Ethiopia. Usually prevention efforts aimed at reducing HAP and related health burdens have been focused on the use of energy efficient cookstoves. There is, however, rigorous lack of evidence in Ethiopia or in other similar settings whether it is possible to achieve adequate HAP reduction and improve health with locally made energy efficient baking stoves from a public health point of view. Particularly, the popular Ethiopian energy efficient "Injera" baking stove has not been researched through stove trial inquiry. Therefore, research studies are required in Ethiopia on health benefits achieved when households adopt energy efficient baking stoves. In view of that, cluster randomized controlled trial will be employed with experimental study design for one year to test the effectiveness of the Ethiopian improved "Injera" baking stove intervention on reducing HAP and childhood acute respiratory infection (ARI) through comparing equal size groups of children before and after part of households received an improved "Injera" baking stove. Accordingly, the proposed stove trial aims to address an important research gap by determining whether the Ethiopian improved "Injera" baking biomass stove intervention can adequately reduce HAP exposure to prevent childhood acute respiratory infection. With this objective, the proposed stove trial will test the hypothesis that there is a statistically significant difference in HAP levels and incidence of childhood ARI when using traditional versus improved "Injera" baking stove in Northwest Ethiopia
The investigators propose a cluster-randomized clinical trial to determine whether an intensive, targeted azithromycin distribution strategy is effective for elimination of trachoma at the kebele level compared to the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of annual azithromycin distribution.
This study evaluates the effects of praise message phone calls on antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation, adherence, and prescription refills. The investigators will use randomization to assign newly (diagnosed) HIV positive, ART naive, female sex workers (FSWs) in Ethiopia to a praise message phone call study arm or to a standard of care control study arm.
A cluster randomized controlled trial was chosen to exploit the robustness of this design to help ascertain the efficacy of the BCC intervention compared to the routine dietary practice. This protocol was developed according to the guidelines of the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement extension for cluster randomized trials. The present study is aims to evaluate the effect of improving micronutrient intake through behavior change communication intervention on nutritional status and academic performance of school age children. Moreover, it may help to prevent or mitigate malnutrition. However to the best knowledge of the authors, BCC intervention using posters, and lecture for school teachers and students have not yet been empirically tested generally in Ethiopia, specifically in the study area context. The present intervention is unique in combining the use of conventional BCC intervention tools, that is, lecture and posters as reminder for intervention reinforcement.
SWIFT I is a series of 3 cluster-randomized trials designed to assess several alternative strategies for trachoma control in communities that have been treated with many years of mass azithromycin distributions. The first trial (named WUHA) compares communities that receive a comprehensive Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) package to those that receive no intervention. The second trial (named TAITU-A) compares communities randomized to targeted antibiotic treatment versus those randomized to mass antibiotics for trachoma, and the third trial (TAITU-B) compares communities randomized to targeted antibiotics versus those randomized to delayed antibiotics. SWIFT II is a continuation of the first trial (WUHA I). WUHA I is an ongoing cluster-randomized trial in rural Ethiopia designed to determine the effectiveness of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) for trachoma. 40 communities were randomized in a 1:1 ratio either to a comprehensive WASH package or to no intervention. The primary outcome is ocular chlamydia, monitored annually for 3 years. In WUHA II we will treat all 40 WUHA communities with a single mass azithromycin distribution after the month 36 visit, and then continue the WASH intervention only in the 20 communities originally randomized to the WASH arm. We perform annual monitoring visits at months 48, 60, 72, and 84 for the primary outcome of ocular chlamydia among 0-5 year old children. A second aim of WUHA II is to perform a diagnostic test accuracy study of the tests already being conducted as well as several novel tests for trachoma surveillance. The novel tests include inexpensive, point-of-care nucleic acid amplification tests performed on conjunctival swabs, a lateral flow assay for chlamydia seropositivity tested on dried blood spots, and an automated algorithm to detect clinical signs of trachoma from conjunctival photographs. The primary objective of the second aim is to test the sensitivity and specificity of each of these trachoma surveillance tests. By comparing the combined azithromycin-WASH communities to communities receiving mass azithromycin alone, we investigate the benefit of combining the "A", "F", and "E" components of the SAFE strategy as opposed to focusing on antibiotics alone. This is an important question given the expense of WASH interventions and the limited resources of trachoma programs.
Aim of the study is to determine optimal time to initiate anti-retroviral therapy in HIV/TB co-infected patients who recently started treatment for Tuberculosis by comparing immediate versus deferred initiation of HAART. The study will address the following questions; - Is it possible to reduce mortality rate and increase survival by early initiation of HAART during TB treatment with out compromising for adverse drug reaction, toxicity and immune reconstitution syndrome? - What is the risk/ benefit ratio between immediate versus deferred initiation of HAART during TB treatment with respect to safety/efficacy of TB and HIV co-treatment? - When is the most appropriate time to start HAART during TB treatment?