There are about 38 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Lesotho. 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.
Lesotho, a small, landlocked country completely surrounded by South Africa, is among the world's poorest nations with one of the world's most severe epidemics of tuberculosis (TB) and HIV. TB incidence is the world's highest and approximately 76% of TB patients are HIV coinfected. Data from similar settings suggest that TB incidence in children is approximately 50% of adult TB incidence. The Lesotho National TB Program has adopted World Health Organization's (WHO) isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) recommendations for child contacts; however, as in other countries in the region, implementation of IPT in children is limited, no clear strategies guide child contact tracing and screening, and no clear methods ensure provision of IPT in children. Thus, it is important to evaluate novel methods to prevent TB in child contacts of adult TB cases. The purpose of the PREVENT Study is to identify an effective and acceptable intervention that addresses programmatic, structural and psychosocial barriers to contact tracing, screening, and IPT for child contacts of TB patients, with the ultimate goal of improving health outcomes among children in Lesotho. The study is a two-arm cluster randomized trial, randomized at the TB clinic level, which includes ten TB clinics in Berea district. Clinics are randomized to deliver the community-based intervention (CBI) or standard of care (SOC), with stratification by facility type. The experimental intervention will be delivered to all child contacts of adult TB patients in TB clinics randomly assigned to CBI. In TB clinics assigned to SOC, usual care procedures for contact tracing and IPT will be delivered.
The specific objectives of this study are reduce stigma towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons in Swaziland and Lesotho, using performance ethnography at community roundtables.
This study is conducted in a cohort of HIV-positive patients on first-line anti-retroviral therapy (ART) in rural health facilities in Lesotho, Southern Africa. It examines virologic treatment failure as well as chronic communicable and non-communicable comorbidities among patients on ART. The study has two phases. Phase 1 consists of a cross-sectional survey to determine prevalence of treatment failure as well as the prevalence of the following comorbidities: diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, dyslipidemia, depression, alcohol use disorder, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Phase 2 is a cohort study, where patients with treatment failure or a comorbidity or both are followed-up for 12 months.
The purpose of this study is to gather information needed to develop a large prevention trial to decrease the risk for HIV transmission among HIV-discordant couples (where one person is HIV-positive and the other is HIVnegative) in Lesotho. The protocol team would like to learn more about men, women and couples in Lesotho and what they think about various topics related to HIV, including HIV testing and counseling, male circumcision and HIV treatment. There will be three parts to the study including 1) a survey 2) focus group discussions; and 3) in-depth interviews. Two hundred pregnant or recently postpartum women will be recruited to participate in the survey. Women who answer the questionnaire will also be asked to participate in the focus groups. A total of 6-8 groups consisting of 6-12 women each will be conducted. Thirty men from the community will be recruited to participate in an in-depth individual interview.
The purpose of this study is to gather information needed to develop a large prevention trial to decrease risk for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) transmission among HIV-discordant couples (where one person is HIV-positive and the other is HIV-negative) in Lesotho. The protocol team would like to explore new strategies for increasing the number of partners who receive an HIV test and whether this increase in testing also results in identifying HIV-discordant couples. These couples would be the focus of the future large prevention trial, therefore it is critical that the protocol team explore effective strategies for identifying and recruiting these couples. Men and women (index participants) who are attending Antenatal Care (ANC),Tuberculosis (TB) and antiretroviral therapy (ART) clinics will be recruited for this study. If they agree to take part, a testing team will visit their household and offer all adults staying in the house the opportunity to conduct a self-test for HIV. Seventy-five index participants will be enrolled into the study and have their homes visited by the testing team. The number of household members tested will depend on the number of people living in each household.
The purpose of this study is to gather information needed to develop a large prevention trial to decrease risk for Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission among HIV-discordant couples (where one person is HIV-positive and the other is HIV-negative) in Lesotho. The protocol team would like to explore new strategies for increasing the number of partners who receive an HIV test and whether this increase in testing also results in identifying HIV-discordant couples. These couples would be the focus of the future large prevention trial therefore it is critical that the protocol team explore effective strategies for identifying and recruiting these couples. Men and women (index participants) who are attending antenatal (ANC) and Tuberculosis (TB) clinics will be recruited for this study. If they agree to take part, a testing team will visit their household and offer all adults staying in the house the opportunity to receive an HIV test. Three hundred index participants will be enrolled into the study and have their homes visited by the testing team. The number of household members tested will depend on the number of people living in each household.
The purpose of the START Study is to identify an effective, cost-effective, acceptable intervention that addresses programmatic, structural and psychosocial barriers to ART initiation and retention during TB treatment, with the ultimate goal of improving health outcomes among HIV-infected TB patients in Lesotho. The study is a two-arm cluster randomized trial, randomized at the TB/HIV clinic level, which includes twelve TB/HIV clinics in Berea district. Clinics are randomized to deliver the combination intervention package (CIP) or standard of care (SOC), with stratification by facility type. The experimental intervention will be delivered to all HIV-infected TB patients in TB/HIV clinics randomly assigned to CIP. In TB/HIV clinics assigned to SOC, usual care procedures for ART initiation and retention will be delivered. Study hypotheses focus on the effectiveness of the CIP on HIV- and TB-related outcomes. Compared to HIV-infected TB patients attending SOC clinics, HIV-infected TB patients at CIP clinics will have superior HIV- and TB-related outcomes, including: - Greater ART initiation during TB treatment - Shorter time to ART initiation - Greater retention in ART care - Higher adherence to ART - Greater change in CD4+ count - Greater TB treatment success (completion and cure) - Greater sputum smear conversion - Higher adherence to TB treatment Additionally, CIP delivery will have an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio more favorable than alternative resource uses.
The purpose of this trial is to determine if door-to-door is more effective than community gathering in providing voluntary HIV counseling and testing (VCT) in communities in rural Lesotho. The voluntary HIV counseling and testing will be proposed as an integrated part of a package of proposed services. The package consists of: Blood-pressure measurement, blood-glucose measurement, Body-mass-index (adults), weight for height (children), catch-up vaccinations, deworming (children) Vitamin A (children & young women), family planning for eligible women, Tuberculosis screening and HIV counseling and testing.