There are about 93 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Gambia. 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.
There is a need for paediatric formulations that permit accurate dosing and enhance patient compliance. However, for the treatment of malaria, scarce paediatric-friendly formulations are available on the market. Thus, a new water dispersible formulation of eurartesim has been developed for oral administration. Aim of this study is to provide data on pharmacokinetic profile, safety and efficacy of this new paediatric formulation and compare it with the crushed film coated tablet in infant patients (6 to ≤12 months of age) suffering from uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Furthermore, a Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic(PK/PD) modelling will be built up to establish PK/PD relationship in adult and paediatric populations.
This study will compare the immune responses of the infants who have been given 13vPnC in the mutidose vial formulation to the immune reponses of the infants who have been given 13vPnC in the single-dose syringe formulation. It will also evaluate the safety of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (13vPnC) in all infants who are vaccinated.
Malaria is a common disease in Africa and a major health problem. Pregnant women are also at risk of malaria. Malaria in pregnancy is life threatening to both the mother and the baby she is carrying. It can result in the destruction of the mother's blood and in babies with a lower birth weight than normal, making them less healthy in their first years of life. These risks are even higher in women having their first pregnancy. When a woman is pregnant she should go to the Antenatal clinic (ANC) for care. Usually the ANC health staff gives the woman intermittent preventable treatment (IPTp-SP) against malaria. This drug helps protect the woman against getting malaria. Each pregnant woman should receive at least 2 doses of this drug during their pregnancy; thus, they should go the ANC at least 2 times during their pregnancy. However, many women still do not go often to the ANC for health care during their pregnancy. This study would like to see whether community health workers (CHW) can work with pregnant women to encourage them to attend ANC more often. Also, the CHW will test a pregnant woman every month for malaria with a rapid test. If a woman has malaria, the CHW will treat her in her home instead of the woman having to go a health clinic for treatment. The woman will be treated with a different drug than the drug that is given at the ANC visits. Our hypothesis is that this will improve the care and management of malaria during pregnancy and this will improve the health of women and their newborns. To see whether this strategy improved the health of women and their newborns, we will take a small piece of the placenta at delivery to test for malaria and we will weigh the baby. We will test this strategy in multiple communities. We will compare this to pregnant women in communities where this strategy was not followed, thus where pregnant women received standard care. Participants will be pregnant women. There are no direct benefits for participating in the study, except the outcome of our research question that is possible health benefits in the intervention group. The drugs involved are tested safe in pregnant women from second trimester on.
The overall goal of this study is to identify interference between intramuscular Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) and other vaccines (Measles Rubella and Yellow Fever) co-administered at nine months of age and to confirm the safety of co-administration. In addition, the study will compare the immunogenicity and safety of IPV when administered via different routes. A total of 1504 healthy infants between the ages of nine to ten months, who have completed their primary immunizations, including at least three doses of trivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (tOPV) will be recruited for this study.
In this study, the investigators are interested to know if lower doses of Primaquine together with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine can produce a similar effect of clearing both sexual and asexual parasites in asymptomatic carriers compared to the recommended dose of primaquine but with a decreased risk of haemolysis. Children (> 1 year) and adults with normal Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase enzyme levels but with asexual Plasmodium falciparum parasites on the day of screening will be invited to take part in this study.
The last decade has witnessed an important reduction of the mortality in children under 5 years but such reduction has not impacted in neonates. Mortality in neonates contributes 40% of all deaths occurring in children below 5 years of age. Severe bacterial disease is among the leading causes of neonatal deaths. Bacterial disease follows bacterial infection. Individuals can be infected without developing disease (carriage stage) but infection is needed to subsequently develop disease. In sub-Saharan Africa, bacterial carriage (i.e. in the birth canal and/or nasopharyngeal tract) is very common in all age groups, with the consequence that occurrence of bacterial disease is one of the highest in the world. Newborns can be infected during labour - when passing through the birth canal - and during the first days/weeks of life, as a consequence of the close physical contact with the mother, if the latter carries bacteria in the nasopharyngeal tract. If the mother is an important source of bacterial infection to the newborn, treating mothers with a powerful antibiotic during labour should decrease bacterial carriage and therefore diminish the risk of bacterial transmission to the newborn during the first days/weeks of life, which should in turn result in the lower occurrence of severe bacterial disease and hence lower mortality. The purpose of this trial is to evaluate the impact of a single oral dose of azithromycin given to women in labour on bacterial carriage of the newborn as well as the women during the first month after delivery. The investigators have selected an antibiotic (azithromycin) that in sub-Saharan Africa has already shown both a strong impact on bacterial nasopharyngeal carriage and on all-cause mortality when administered to everybody in a community (mass drug administration). This specific antibiotic has several advantages for being deployable as a simple intervention in rural Africa, i.e. it requires a single oral administration, it has no special storage requirements and it has the potential to eliminate many of the bacteria commonly causing severe disease in newborn. This clinical trial will be conducted in a peri-urban health facility in Western Gambia. If an impact is shown, the next step would be to conduct a larger study aiming at establishing if the intervention, implemented at a lower level of care (most African women deliver at home assisted by traditional birth assistants), decreases the occurrence of neonatal bacterial disease
Personal exposure to Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) is a known risk factor of severe pneumonia, which is the number one killer of children under five in developing countries. The main source of IAP in developing countries is cooking fires, with an estimated 3 billion people still reliant on biomass stoves for their daily cooking. This study will test the effectiveness of an intervention aimed to reduce IAP, as well as help to quantify the relationship between exposure (IAP) and infection (pneumococcal carriage). In Phase I (adjunct pilot study L2010.99), 3 fuels and 5 stoves were tested to measure harmful pollutant emissions. The preliminary results showed that the largest difference was found in the fuels (briquettes cleaner than wood), with a smaller difference found between a couple of the improved stoves and the traditional 3-stone. Re-testing of selected stove/fuel combinations to confirm findings has just been completed. Phase II (this proposal) will test the biomass briquettes in a randomized clinical trial to measure actual IAP reductions in households. A proof of concept pneumococcal survey will also be conducted as a secondary study to see whether reduced exposure to IAP affects pneumococcal carriage in babies and mothers
This is a cluster Tuberculosis (TB) randomized trial in which enhanced case finding (ECF) strategy will be compared to passive TB case reporting in The Gambia. And that the impact of ECF on community and household transmission of TB will also be assessed. The hypothesis is a cluster randomized trial of an enhanced case finding (ECF) strategy will increase TB case notifications in The Gambia and reduce TB burden in the study area in a cost effective manner. The impact of ECF on community and household transmission of TB will also be assessed. The investigators hope this trial will contribute to this evidence base. The timing alongside a nationwide TB prevalence survey is particularly of benefit as that would provide a baseline for disease burden against which the investigators may be able to compare case notification or case detection in selected clusters
The primary trial objective is to determine the clinically effective dose of orally administered pyronaridine/artesunate (Pyramax®, PA) with a 3:1 ratio to treat adults with acute, symptomatic, uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria in South East Asia and Africa. Secondary trial objectives are to determine the safety of once-daily dosing for 3 days of PA and to explore possible ethnic differences in safety or efficacy.
Infants in malaria-endemic regions of Africa are an important target for vaccination against malaria in view of the enormous disease burden of malaria in this population. The purpose of this trial is to assess the safety and immunogenicity of MVA ME-TRAP and AdCH63 ME-TRAP candidate vaccines in healthy children in a malaria endemic region. The regimen proposed here has protected non-immune volunteers in Oxford against sporozoite challenge, and so may be protective against naturally acquired infection in the Gambia. Administration of AdCh63 ME-TRAP and MVA ME-TRAP to infants in this study will occur at intervals of at least two weeks from the administration of routine infant immunisations, given according to the Gambian EPI.