There are about 65 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Bolivia. 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.
Justification and background Ventilator-associated complications (VACs) are those complications that develop during a period of intubation of a patient . Pneumonia is the second most frequent infectious complication in the hospital, and ranks first in ICU, whose risk is increased more than 20 times by the presence of invasive mechanical ventilation and is called ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) . Whereas the information published regarding VAP in terms of diagnosis, treatment and impact on the outcome of critically ill patients is enormous.Ventilator-associated tracheobronchitis (VAT) incidence is lacking and complicated in part, since the definition remains controversial. In addition, the significance of tracheobronchial colonization as a risk factor for subsequent lower respiratory tract infection remains unclear . The upper and lower airways can become colonized . Several factors have been taken into account and do not differ from those involved in VAT and VAP development in patients under mechanical ventilation. Definition VAT diagnosis is controversial and represents an actual problem in order to define the real incidence of VAT , There is currently no valid, reliable definition for VAT, and even the most widely-used VAT criteria and definitions are neither sensitive nor specific. The diagnosis of VAT is considered when a patient under invasive mechanical ventilation starts with fever, leukocytosis and new or increased purulent secretions by the endotracheal tube. A particular difficulty with much commonly used VAT definition (in order to distinguish from VAP) is the key point of the absence of pulmonary consolidation. Evidence suggests that chest radiograph findings do not accurately role out VAP. A taskforce on hospital-acquired pneumonia, and VAP has been recently published (European Respiratory Society (ERS), European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) and European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM)). Nosocomial tracheobronchitis definition includes occurrence of purulent tracheal secretion after ≥48 h of hospitalisation or mechanical ventilation plus ≥2 of the following: fever (≥38.5°C) or hypothermia (<36°C), leukocytosis (≥12 × 109/L), significant bacteriologic counts in respiratory secretions (≥103 cfu/mL for protected brush specimen (PBS) and ≥105 cfu/mL for endotracheal aspirates); absence of new pulmonary infiltrates compatible with pneumonia and absence of other causes of fever are mandatory. This definition needs to be further validated and can overdiagnose the incidence of VAT (and overuse of antibiotics) because the positive culture of respiratory secretions is not a mandatory item RATIONALE Given the possible high incidence of VAT, and its importance as a risk factor for VAP, and a potential target to treat in order to reduce VAP incidence, a large multicentre
Adolescents in Latin America are at major risk for unwanted pregnancies leading to unsafe abortions and maternal health risks. Mostly, adolescent health programmes tend to focus on unidirectional interventions aiming at a single determinant of adolescents´ sexual and reproductive health. However, evidence exists that a complex health problem should be addressed by an equally nuanced and multipronged response. Knowledge is lacking on how to develop a comprehensive approach to promote adolescents' sexual health. The CERCA study will conduct an implementation based on the hypothesis that a comprehensive strategy of community-embedded interventions helps to improve the sexual health of adolescents. We will test this hypothesis and describe the development, implementation and testing of interventions in three Latin American cities: Cochabamba (Bolivia), Cuenca (Ecuador) and Managua (Nicaragua). The research methodology has been designed based on the methodological frameworks of action research, community based participatory research and intervention mapping. The interventions are complex addressing different target groups (adolescents, parents, authorities and health providers) and focussing on various behaviours that are related to communication about sexuality, information seeking, access to health care and safe sexual intercourse. For the evaluation of effectiveness a randomised and non-randomised controlled study was developed for respectively Managua and the two other cities. Furthermore a process evaluation is conducted. This research will result in a framework that will contribute to the planning of interventions that are effective and responsive to adolescents' sexual health needs.
The purpose of this study is to estimate the gain in sensitivity of several multiple-sample strategies of PCR samples with respect to the current standard (single sample of 10 ml) to detect Chagas chronic stage at baseline and to identify the optimal sampling strategy based on the sensitivity, cost,the completeness of sampling and the acceptability for study patients.
The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of racecadotril in acute watery diarrhea in children. The investigators will evaluate the effect of product versus placebo.
The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of zinc in acute watery diarrhea in children. The investigators will evaluate the effect of product versus placebo.
The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of probiotic yogurt in acute watery diarrhea in children. The investigators will compare the effect of two different probiotics products.
This study will assess the safety and efficacy of E1224, a pro-drug of ravuconazole, in individuals with chronic indeterminate Chagas disease recruited in research centres in Tarija and Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Cutaneous leishmaniasis is endemic in the New World from approximately the US-Mexican border through Central America and the Northern part of South America down to the level of Rio de Janeiro. Until recently, the standard treatment for the leishmaniases was pentavalent antimony (Glucantime or Pentostam). The cure rate for L panamensis in Colombia is 91%-93% [Soto, 1993; Velez, 1997], a large study with several formulations of antimony found a combined Bolivia-Colombia cure rate of 86% [Soto, 2004b], and in work just completed, the cure rate in Palos Blancos, Bolivia is 15 of 16 = 94% [ Soto, manuscript in preparation]. Nevertheless, pentavalent antimonials have the disadvantages of multiple injections and mild-moderate clinical toxicity [gastrointestinal complaints, liver enzyme elevations, pancreatic enzyme elevations], all of which are particularly unpleasant for a moderate clinical problem such as cutaneous leishmaniasis. The oral agent Miltefosine has now been shown to be as effective as antimony in Colombia and Bolivia. In Colombia, the cure rate for miltefosine was 91% [Soto 2004a] and in the just-completed trial in Palos Blancos, the cure rate for miltefosine was 32 of 37 = 88 % . Side effects seen in patients with cutaneous disease that can be specifically attributed to the drug are nausea and vomiting of mild grade in approximately 25% of patients, and low-grade elevation of creatinine also in approximately 25% of patients [Soto 2001; Soto 2004]. The 6-month cure rate did not reach 100%, and miltefosine was relatively slow to cure compared to Sb. 31 of 44 evaluable miltefosine patients (70%) were cured by 1 month after therapy, compared to 16 of 16 evaluable Glucantime patients (100%). Imiquimod (Aldara; 3M Pharmaceuticals) is a novel immune response-activating compound, approved by the FDA for cervical warts, that activates macrophage killing of Leishmania species. Combined imiquimod plus Glucantime was used as rescue treatment in 12 patients with Peruvian cutaneous leishmaniasis who had previously not responded to Glucantime alone. 90% of patients were cured at the 6-month follow-up period [Arevalo, 2001]. In a follow up study [Miranda-Verastegui et al, 2005], naïve patients were randomized between the combination of Sb plus imiquimod (18 patients) vs Sb plus placebo (20 patients). The cure rate at 1 month after therapy was 50% in the imiquimod +Sb group compared to 15% in the placebo+Sb group (p = 0.02). By 12 months after therapy, the Sb+placebo group had caught up, and the cure rate was 72%-75% in each group. Local side effects were evaluated. Edema, itching, burning, pain were equal in the two groups. There was more erythema in the imiquimod grup (55% of patients) compared to the placebo group (25% of patients). The Imiquimod studies in neighboring Peru suggest that combination with this immunomodulator is capable of decreasing the time to cure, and potentially increasing the cure rate, in Andean cutaneous leishmaniasis. The present study will evaluate the combination of oral miltefosine plus topical imiquimod for cutaneous leishmaniasis in Bolivia. If in the first group of patients, cure rate at 1 month after therapy is appreciably above the 70% historic value for miltefosine alone and the cure rate at 6 months is greater than the 88% historic value for miltefosine alone, subsequent patients will be randomized between miltefosine+imiquimod and miltefosine+placebo cream.
Cutaneous leishmaniasis is endemic in the New World and, until recently, the standard treatment was pentavalent antimony. The cure rate for L panamensis in Colombia is 91%-93% and the cure rate in Bolivia is also 90%. Nevertheless, pentavalent antimonials have the disadvantages of multiple injections and mild-moderate clinical toxicity all of which are particularly unpleasant for a moderate clinical problem such as cutaneous leishmaniasis. The oral agent Miltefosine has now been shown to be as effective as antimony in Colombia and Bolivia (91 and 92% respectively). Side effects seen in patients with cutaneous disease that can be specifically attributed to the drug are nausea and vomiting of mild grade in approximately 25% of patients, and low-grade elevation of creatinine also in approximately 25% of patients. A further disadvantage of miltefosine is that regimens shorter than 4 weeks have not been evaluated for cutaneous disease. Combination therapy is now being used for many infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV. Combination therapy offers the potential of preventing drug resistance, because organisms resistant to one of the drugs may be susceptible to the other drug; and also the potential to diminish drug therapy duration and thus side effects. These two potential benefits to some extent contradict each other: preventing resistance is best done if full courses of both drugs is used; diminishing therapy duration means using less than the full course of each drug. The optimum combination regimen is one in which sufficient amounts of both drugs are used to have high efficacy, yet the amounts are as low as possible to spare patients unnecessarily long courses of drug. In the present protocol, the combination of a half-course of miltefosine and a half-course of antimony will be evaluated for efficacy and tolerance. The combination of miltefosine and antimony is chosen because these are now the two standard agents in Bolivia, and in vitro the combination was additive to mildly synergistic against a standard leishmania strain.
Intralesional injection of antimony has been used for L major from Iran with a modest cure rate [56%: Asilian 2004]. However, this therapeutic approach has been used for L braziliensis from Brazil, with an attractive cure rate after 3 months of 80% [Oliveira-Neto 1997]. Because intralesional Sb injections is the local therapy with the best reported cure rate for South American L braziliensis disease, the species that causes disease in Bolivia, this pilot study of local therapy for bolivian L braziliensis disease will evaluate intralesional Sb therapy.