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.
In the TB TRIAGE+ ACCURACY study, the accuracy of the following products will be determined: - CAD4TB (Delft Imaging System, NL), a digital chest x-ray analysis software - Afinion CRP assay (Alere Afinion, USA), which detects a cytokine induced acute phase protein CAD4TB and the C-reactive protein assay are two tests with great potential of becoming a triage test for the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB). These potential triage tests for TB are intended to serve as rule-out tests with a high sensitivity and negative predictive value. Before impact and cost-effectiveness of new TB triage tests for intensified active case finding can be determined, the diagnostic test accuracy needs to be assessed in comparison to confirmatory reference tests. This accuracy study will define cut-off values for CAD4TB as well as for the Afinion CRP assay to be used in a future cluster-randomised trial on impact and cost-effectiveness of TB triage strategies for intensified active case finding in Lesotho and KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. A sub-study (detailed in a separate study protocol), hereafter called AHD-FEASIBILITY, explores the feasibility of implementing a series of point-of-care tests, including the new VISITECT CD4 Advanced Disease Test (Omega Diagnostics, UK) as part of the WHO-recommended advanced HIV Disease care package in the context of community-based HIV/TB campaigns. Due to the coinciding pandemics and the overlapping symptoms of TB and COVID-19, it is critical to test for SARS-Cov-2 infections in the study population. In addition, this study will contribute to the evaluation of a novel SARS-Cov-2 antigen rapid diagnostic test (from the diagnostic pipeline of FIND) and CAD4COVID, a digital chest x-ray analysis software (Delft Imaging System, NL) in combination with differential white blood cell count.
This cluster randomized clinical trial at 18 nurse-led rural health centers in Lesotho will test an automated differentiated service delivery model using viral load results, other clinical characteristics and participants' preference to automatically triage participants into groups requiring different levels of attention and care.
This project will determine how well the mobile health (mHealth) Nthabi application is introduced and used at district hospitals in Lesotho. This will help with measuring the effectiveness of an evidence-based mHealth application in a low-income country. Three factors will be studied when assessing the mHealth application's overall impact: 1) end-user content knowledge 2) pre and post stage of change and 3) system usage. This data will be collected by the mHealth application. End-users will use the mHealth application over a period of two months. Results will be shared with the clinical, health services research, information technology, and policy communities.
DO-REAL is an observational cohort study assessing the large-scale roll-out of the antiretroviral drug dolutegravir (DTG) in Lesotho. DTG has been shown to have low side-effects and superior treatment outcomes for people living with HIV-1 when compared to other antiretroviral drugs currently in use in low-income countries. The use of DTG in first-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimens was recommended by the World Health Organisation in 2018 and adopted by the Ministry of Health in Lesotho in 2019. While DTG-based ART regimens have led to promising health outcomes in high-income and clinical trial settings, certain concerns remain regarding the risk of ART-experienced patients transitioning to a DTG-based ART regimen being placed on a functional monotherapy (increasing the otherwise low risk of viral resistance to DTG) as well as side-effects including psychological symptoms and weight gain. Thus, the DO-REAL study intends to address these concerns and provide data on health outcomes of HIV patients on DTG in a "real-life" high-prevalence setting.
HIV infection can be effectively controlled with antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, children and adolescents living with HIV and receiving ART suffer high rates of treatment failure, predominantly caused by suboptimal adherence to therapy and/or viral drug resistance. While high-income countries routinely use genotypic resistance testing (GRT) to determine which drug combinations are likely to be effective, this diagnostic tool is relatively costly and labour-intensive and is not routinely available in most resource-limited settings. GIVE MOVE is a multi-country (Lesotho, Tanzania) randomised clinical trial assessing if rapid GRT after detecting an unsuppressed viral load improves the clinical management and thus health outcomes for children and adolescents living with HIV. Children and adolescents with an unsuppressed viral load despite ART are enrolled and randomly allocated to a control or an intervention arm (50% of participants in each arm). The control arm receives care according to the current standard of care, consisting of three sessions of enhanced adherence counselling at monthly intervals, followed by a second viral load test. Onward treatment is informed by the outcome of this viral load test alongside empirical guidelines and clinical judgement. The intervention arm receives GRT and GRT-informed onward therapy. Participants in the intervention arm also receive three sessions of enhanced adherence counselling, which is informed by GRT results (i.e., if no drug resistance is detected, there is a high chance of suboptimal adherence to ART and this can be directly addressed). This trial will assess if the rapid provision of GRT improves participants' health outcomes at 9 months after enrolment. A nested study will assess the cost and cost-effectiveness of GRT. Thus, this trial will provide evidence on whether the provision of GRT for children and adolescents with HIV should be prioritised in resource-limited settings.
The objectives of this data collection activity are to: 1. Describe the baseline demographics, clinical and laboratory profile of patients who ever received darunavir (DRV) and/or etravirine (ETR), at the time of initiation on DRV and/or ETR; 2. Describe the clinical and laboratory profile of patients who ever received DRV and/or ETR every 6 months from the first data collection point through 2021; 3. Describe dynamics in HIV drug resistance mutations among patients who fail treatment on new regimens including DRV and/or ETR; 4. Describe demographics, clinical and laboratory profile of young adults who transition out of the donation program after the age of 25 years at 12 months after their transition.
This study is to compare the effectiveness of three different antihypertensive treatment strategies for reaching a target blood pressure (clinic BP) of </= 130/80 mmHg among patients <65years of age and </= 140/90 mmHg among patients >/=65years of Age in HIV-positive and HIV-negative patients with uncomplicated arterial hypertension in rural Tanzania and Lesotho.
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is home to 85% of the adolescents and young people living with HIV (AYPLHIV) globally and they are heavily affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic: AYPLHIV in SSA are the only population group for whom HIV-related mortality continues to increase, and they have overall poorer outcomes than all other age groups. Lesotho with worldwide the second-highest HIV prevalence shows a viral suppression rate among AYPLHIV of only 49%. In order to address the multiple barriers in the adolescent HIV care cascade and their unique needs, multicomponent packages of differentiated service delivery (DSD) are a promising approach. In close collaboration with different local stakeholders, the researchers designed a DSD model specifically for AYPLHIV, called the PEBRA model. In the PEBRA model the peer-educator (PE) plays a pivotal role, by coordinating the ART refill/care according to the patient's preferences using a tablet-based application, called PEBRApp (https://github.com/chrisly-bear/PEBRApp). The PEBRApp helps the PE to assess each participant's preference, to adapt the ART refill according to these preferences in a feasible manner, to keep track of the ART refill, and to ensure regular contact between the PE and the participant. The model includes key innovative options such as individualized automatic SMS notifications and decentralized ART delivery. The PEBRApp was developed with ❤️ by Technify Maseru, Lesotho (www.technifyls.com) & Christoph Schwizer Zurich, Switzerland (www.christophschwizer.ch).
This evaluation will be conducted in ten countries involved in the Catalyzing Pediatric TB Innovation (CaP-TB) project: Cameroon, Cote D'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and India. The CaP-TB project is a project designed to use innovative methods and capacity building to strengthen the health systems of developing countries in terms of pediatric TB case detection, early accurate diagnosis and effective treatment. This project is funded by Unitaid and is implemented by Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. EGPAF proposes to evaluate the implementation of CaP-TB in up to 450 sites in ten participating countries. This evaluation will assess the effects of CaP-TB innovative interventions on selected service delivery outcomes as compared to routine TB program in a sub-set of project sites in the ten countries.
endTB-Q Clinical Trial is a Phase III, randomized, controlled, open-label, non-inferiority, multi-country trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of two new, all-oral, shortened regimens for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) with fluoroquinolone resistance.