There are about 191 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Mali. 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.
Hypothesis: The MSP3-LSP/Alum vaccine, administered to children will have a protective efficacy of at least 30% (lower bound of confidence interval of 0) against malaria disease occurring during a period beginning from 14 days after the 3rd immunization until 1 year after. The primary objective of this double-blind, randomized, controlled trial will be to assess the clinical efficacy of MSP3-LSP/AlOH vaccine when administered by subcutaneous route in children aged 12-48 months against all clinical malaria episodes occurring during a period beginning from 14 days after the 3rd immunization until 3 months after 3rd immunization, when administered according to the following schedule:- Primary administration: Three doses of administered 4 weeks apart Secondary administration (Boost): One dose 3 months after the third dose in year 1 of the trial; and two doses, given exactly one year after the date corresponding to the third dose and the first boost given during Year 1 Case definition for an episode of malaria is a febrile illness with axillary temperature of ≥ 37.5ºC with P. falciparum parasitemia ≥ 5000 per μL
Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) malaria remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. A malaria vaccine would contribute towards efforts to control and eliminate malaria. Optimism that an effective malaria vaccine can be developed is derived in part from the observation that repeated Pf infections can induce protective immunity; however, the mechanisms underlying acquired malaria immunity remain unclear. The goal of the current study is to apply systems biological tools to an observational cohort in an area of intense seasonal Pf transmission to gain insight into the mechanisms underlying naturally acquired malaria immunity. This year-long observational-cohort study of 700 individuals (3 months and 25 years of age) will be conducted in the rural village of Kalifabougou, Mali, where Pf transmission is intense and seasonal. Asymptomatic Pf infection and malaria episodes will be detected by passive and active surveillance. Immune parameters of malaria-protected and -susceptible individuals will be assayed from blood samples collected at strategic time points relative to the malaria season. The primary objective is to identify genome-wide expression profiles induced by Pf infection that are associated with protection from malaria. Secondary objectives include identifying age-related (surrogate for cumulative Pf exposure) changes in Pf-induced gene-expression and serum cytokine profiles, and examining Pf-specific antibody profiles that are associated with protection from malaria using a protein microarray representing 2000 Pf proteins (40 percent of the Pf proteome). Exploratory objectives for this study are to compare the magnitude and quality of the Pf-specific CD4 plus T cell response in malaria-protected and -susceptible individuals and determine how this response varies with age and among individuals before, during, and after malaria season, as well as compare various immune parameters in Pf-infected and uninfected individuals at the end of the dry season to investigate host immune factors associated with chronic asymptomatic Pf infection....
Background: - Tuberculosis is a disease of the lungs caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis). The most popular and least expensive tool used to detect the presence of the tuberculosis bacteria is called sputum smears, which is a lab test used to look for bacteria in the sputum via a microscope. However, the test s results are not always accurate, and the test cannot determine if the bacteria will be resistant to standard tuberculosis treatments. The most sensitive test currently available is called sputum culture, in which a sputum sample is used to check for the growth of tuberculosis bacteria. However, this test takes at least a month to produce accurate results, and requires expensive equipment that is not available in many countries where M. tuberculosis is found. - The urea breath test (UBT) has been used to detect infection with Helicobacter pylori, a bacteria associated with stomach ulcers, by testing individual breath samples. Researchers are interested in determining whether breath samples can also be used to detect the presence of M. tuberculosis in the lungs of subjects with tuberculosis, and to see if tuberculosis treatments are successful. Objectives: - To assess the sensitivity and specificity of urea breath testing in the diagnosis and treatment response of pulmonary tuberculosis. Eligibility: - Individuals at least 18 years of age who either have been diagnosed with tuberculosis or are healthy volunteers with no past history of tuberculosis. - The study will be conducted in Bamako, Mali. Design: - This study will involve three groups: two pilot groups of individuals who have already been diagnosed with tuberculosis, and a primary study group of both healthy volunteers and individuals who have been diagnosed with tuberculosis. - Participants will be screened with a physical examination and medical history, as well as blood, sputum, stool, and urine samples. - First pilot group (one visit): - Participants should not eat, drink, or smoke for at least 1 hour prior to the UBT test. - Participants will provide a baseline exhaled air sample, and then will receive the UBT test, which involves a dose of Pranactin -Citric dissolved in water. Additional exhaled air samples will be collected at eight time points (10, 20, 45, 60, 90, 120, 180, and 240 minutes after the dose). - Second pilot group (one or two visits): - Participants should not eat, drink, or smoke for at least 1 hour prior to the UBT test. - Participants will provide a baseline exhaled air sample, and then will receive the UBT test. Half of the participants will receive a dose of bismuth (Pepto-Bismol) prior to collection of air samples to see how this affects the results of the UBT test. Additional exhaled air samples will be collected at three time points specified by the study researchers. - On the following day, participants will return for a second visit to provide three more exhaled air samples. - Primary study group (five visits for participants with tuberculosis, two visits for healthy volunteers): - All participants will have two visits, following the procedures given for the second pilot group. Half will receive a dose of bismuth prior to collection of air samples. - Participants with tuberculosis will have three additional visits (days 6, 10, and 16 following the first study visit) to provide additional sputum and exhaled air samples to monitor the progress of tuberculosis treatment.
In the vast majority of those infected with HIV virus who are untreated, there is deterioration in immune health over a period of months or years inevitably leading to full-blown AIDS and demise. Treatment with ARV's stop or slow down this deterioration if started before a certain degree of progression occurs and has saved millions of lives. The investigators' study hypothesis is that effectiveness of a very low dose of an FDA-approved medication, naltrexone hydrochloride, (Low-Dose Naltrexone, or LDN) will compare favorably to ARV's to prevent progression of HIV+ toward immune deterioration and full-blown AIDS.
Plasmodium falciparum malaria remains a global public health threat. Leading malaria vaccine candidates confer only partial short-lived protection at best. An understanding of the mechanisms by which humans acquire malaria immunity through repeated P. falciparum infections may aid the development of a malaria vaccine. This pilor study is designed to initiate the epidemiological groundwork for a future prospective cohort study of acquired malaria immunity in Kalifabougou, Mali, a rural village of approximately 5 000 individuals who are exposed to seasonal P. falciparum transmission each year from July through December. This study will estimate the age-stratified point prevalence of P. falciparum infection before the malaria season and at the peak of the 6-month malaria season, and it will estimate the age-stratified incidence of symptomatic p. falciparum infection during the 6-month malaria season. The spatial distribution of asymptomatic P. falciparum infections and incident malaria cases within the village of Kalifabougou will be determined by merging the prevalence and incidence data with census and Global Positioning System (GPS) data....
The main objective is to assess impact of the establishment of involved patients (peer educators) network in Mali. It will be conducted by a multidisciplinary team that brings together high level skills in research projects and in peer education projects. It will be conducted in one country Mali. In the country, it will be completed in one site : the region of Sikasso. This site was chosen because It meet a functional care, access to medicines and a dynamic association of diabetic patients. Peer educators and persons targeted by the project will be recruited through Post-Test Club on diabetes (PTC). PTC will be a social support club that provides on going prevention counseling, education and support services to people who have diabetes. PTC represents an important link between patients, educators and general medical services. PTC will be defined as clubs, which are facilitated by well-trained peer educators, and will have 3 objectives: to provide social and emotional support to diabetic patients, to provide assistance in daily management and living with diabetes and to provide linkage to clinical care. To lead the sessions, in clubs, we will use a very innovative methodology for peer education: the learning nests method. To evaluate, we propose a classical randomized controlled experimental (RCT) design, with randomization at the person-level. For outcome measures, we propose change in HbA1c, increase of social and emotional support and increase of linkage to clinical care. In addition to HbA1c, we propose measuring changes systolic and diastolic blood pressure and weight.
The Millennium Villages Project involves the coordinated and simultaneous delivery of a package of proven interventions in health, agriculture, infrastructure and education. The project works in partnership with governments in 10 African countries in areas where progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals has been insufficient. The Project evaluation will test the following hypotheses: 1. That after 5 years of operation, villages exposed to the MVP intervention will have a lower rate of under-5 mortality and parallel gains in MDG-related secondary outcomes when compared to similar villages not receiving the intervention. 2. That the coordinated delivery a multi-sector package of health and development interventions implemented through a broad-based local partnership is feasible in a diversity of sub-Saharan African contexts, and; 3. The intervention package can be delivered at a scalable cost of $40 per person per year in the health sector and $110 per person per year in total
Meningococcal disease occurs throughout the world but attack rates in the Sahelian and sub-Sahelian regions of Africa - the African meningitis belt - are many times higher than those seen in any other part of the world. During 2009, over 70,000 meningitis cases and 3,200 deaths were reported in Nigeria, Niger, and Chad alone. In 2001, a public private partnership between WHO and PATH was created, the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP). The MVP set out to develop an affordable meningococcal serogroup A conjugate vaccine (MenAfriVac™) for use in the African meningitis belt. This was successfully achieved, and the new vaccine, produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII), was granted a licence in 2009 for international export. The vaccine dossier was submitted to WHO for prequalification at the beginning of 2010. Introduction through mass vaccination is planned in three African Meningitis belt countries in 2010 (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger). The implementation of MenAfriVac will be the responsibility of the local Ministry of Health, with the support of the World Health Organization. It is anticipated that this vaccine will be deployed in other countries of the meningitis belt in 2011. This vaccine should provide high levels of direct protection to immunised individuals but, as for serogroup C conjugate vaccines in the United Kingdom, a greater public health impact will be achieved if carriage and transmission of the infection are also prevented. The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSTHM) is coordinating the African Meningococcal Carriage Consortium (MenAfriCar). One of the primary objectives of the MenAfriCar project is to evaluate the impact of the new conjugate vaccine on meningococcal carriage and transmission of serogroup A meningococci in Mali, Niger and Chad. A community-based prospective, pre- and post intervention, observational study will be conducted. MenAfriCar will also help to develop research capacity in the participating African countries.
The incidence of malaria, including the incidence in pregnant women, is declining in many African countries. Thus, there is a need to re-examine the efficacy and cost effectiveness of giving intermittent preventive treatment with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine in pregnancy (SP-IPTp) on several occasions during pregnancy, an intervention that is threatened by increasing resistance to SP. Possible alternatives to SP-IPTp need to be explored. This applies especially to areas with highly seasonal malaria transmission where women are at risk for only a short period of the year. The goal of this project is to determine whether in pregnant women who sleep under a long lasting insecticide treated bed net, screening and treatment at each scheduled antenatal clinic visit is as effective in protecting them from anaemia, low birth weight and placental infection as SP-IPTp. Primigravidae and secundigravidae who present at antenatal clinics in study sites in four West African countries (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali and The Gambia) will be randomised to one of two groups. All women will be given a long lasting insecticide treated bed net on first presentation at the antenatal clinic. Women in group 1 (reference group) will receive SP-IPTp according to the current WHO guidelines. Those in group 2 will be screened with a rapid diagnostic test at each scheduled antenatal clinic visit and treated if parasitaemic. Approximately 5000 women will be recruited, 2500 in each group. Women will be encouraged to deliver in hospital where maternal haemoglobin and birth weight will be recorded and a placental sample obtained. Those who deliver at home will be visited within a week of delivery and maternal haemoglobin and infant weight recorded. Mothers and infants will be seen again six weeks after delivery. Also at delivery peripheral maternal blood sample will be obtained for the diagnosis of malaria using RDT, microscopy and PCR. The primary end points of the trial will be birth weight and anaemia at 38 weeks (+/-2 weeks) of gestation. The study is powered to show non-inferiority of group 2 compared to group 1. The costs and cost effectiveness of each intervention will be evaluated. In the light of recent evidence suggesting that malaria infection during pregnancy, particularly in the last trimester may influence an infant's risk of malaria, we proposed to follow infants born to mothers recruited in the Navrongo site in Ghana who have received either IST or IPTp in pregnancy throughout the whole of their first year of life beyond the six weeks originally proposed. We have received approval for this from the ethic committees at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana Health Service and Navrongo Health Research Centre. The aim is to obtain information on the incidence of both symptomatic and asymptomatic malaria infections in these infants during follow up of the infants. The study will provide information to national malaria control programmes on whether there are alternative, safe and effective methods to the SP IPTp regimen for reducing the burden of malaria in pregnancy.
Background: - Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a degenerative and incurable neuromuscular disorder that is caused by mutations in the survival motor neuron gene, SMN1, found on chromosome 5. It is the leading inherited cause of infant mortality. SMA carriers (those who have the genetic mutation but do not have the disease) are often unaware of their status until they are tested. - Researchers have been studying the prevalence of SMA carriers in the general population, but most of the information collected has come from populations within the United States, Europe, and Asia. Very few studies have been performed in Africa. Furthermore, this information does not provide much information regarding carrier frequency based on ethnic background and ancestry. To address this problem, researchers are interested in studying the prevalence of the SMA genetic mutation in the sub-Saharan nation of Mali. Objectives: - To collect blood samples for use in studying genetic data related to spinal muscular atrophy. Eligibility: - Healthy volunteers who are at least 18 years of age. - Volunteers will be of Malian ancestry and nationality. Study Location: -<TAB>Bamako, Mali, West Africa Design: - The study will first collect blood samples from a small group of volunteers to run initial SMA carrier testing and resolve any technical difficulties before continuing with the study. - Participants will complete questionnaires about their personal and family medical history, including questions about illnesses, stillborns, and miscarriages, and then will provide blood samples for genetic research and testing.