There are about 38 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Congo. 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.
Two in every three infants in rural areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) suffer from stunting of linear growth by 12 months of age. Stunting presumably results from breast milk supplementation after 6 months of age with complementary foods (CF) that provide inadequate protein and micronutrients. Although supplementation with selected micronutrients may avoid certain deficiency states, CF with animal source foods may be necessary to avoid stunting. Meat is not readily available in many Central African countries. However caterpillars, which are locally available and abundant, are a common staple in adult diets and may be a suitable substitute for animal source proteins in CF. The investigators developed a cereal made from dried caterpillars that has a nutrient content that appears to be ideal for CF. Maternal and infant acceptability will be evaluated in 20 mothers and their 8 month old infants. The investigators hypothesize that this cereal will be accepted by both mothers and infants: acceptability will be based on a priori definitions.
The specific aims of this project is to determine the impact of a daily intake of one half ounce of lyophilized meat between 6-18 months of age (0.5 oz for 6-12 mo; 0.75 oz for 12-18 mo) on linear growth velocity, zinc and iron intakes and status, brain growth and neurocognitive development, and infectious disease morbidity in populations traditionally dependent on non-micronutrient fortified plant foods for complementary feeding.
Multicenter, open label, uncontrolled phase IIIb study of therapeutic use of the combination of nifurtimox and eflornithine (NECT) for the treatment of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) in the meningo-encephalitic phase. Overall objectives: Assess the clinical tolerability, feasibility and effectiveness of NECT co-administration to treat patients with T.b. gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) in the meningo-encephalitic phase in actual real-life conditions (regular treatment centers of the National HAT Control Programme, NGO treatment centers). Primary objective: - Assess the clinical response of the NECT co-administration under field conditions. Secondary objectives: - Assess the incidence and type of adverse events (AE), and the capacity of the treatment centers to deal with these. - Assess the feasibility of the implementation of the NECT coadministration by the health center. - Assess the effectiveness of the NECT co-administration at 24* months after treatment.
The primary objective of this study is to determine to what extent provision with RUTF will promote catch up growth in children following an acute uncomplicated episode of P. falciparum malaria.
Human African Trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness has made a spectacular return during the last decade, and in many places the demand largely surpasses the capacities of the treatment centers. Treatment of the disease remains unsatisfactory. All currently used drugs must be administered parenterally, treatment is lengthy, and adverse drug reactions frequent. There are currently no drugs that are easily administered and have low toxicity, and might thus be used as tools to support disease control. This study aims to compare the safety and efficacy of DB289, a new, orally administered dication prodrug to pentamidine i.m. injection for the treatment of first stage sleeping sickness. The project will be executed in the framework of an international consortium consisting of several partners from academia, industry and from the Democratic Republic of Congo Ministries of Health.
Human African Trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness has made a spectacular return during the last decade, and in many places the demand largely surpasses the capacities of the treatment centers. Treatment of the disease remains unsatisfactory. All currently used drugs must be administered parenterally, treatment is lengthy, and adverse drug reactions frequent. There are currently no drugs which might be used as a tool to support disease control that is easily administered and has low toxicity. This study aims to assess the efficacy of DB289, a new, oral drug for treatment of first stage sleeping sickness. The project will be executed in the framework of an international consortium consisting of more than a dozen partners from academia, industry, and the Ministries of Health of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The NICHD Global Network (GN) for Women's and Children's Health Research, a multi-site, international research network, provides a unique infrastructure to implement an expanded perinatal verbal autopsy study using the FIRST BREATH trial as its platform. The FIRST BREATH trial is an ongoing study of neonatal resuscitation training in rural community settings within Global Network sites in Central Africa, Asia and Latin America. This study uses a validated VA questionnaire to determine COD of stillbirths and early neonatal deaths among participants in the FIRST BREATH study. We propose to expand the usefulness of perinatal verbal autopsy methodology in two ways. First by assessing whether the Community Coordinator (a non-physician health worker) can assign COD with a high level of concordance comparable to a Physician Panel, and second, whether the FIRST BREATH Birth Attendant can provide as reliable perinatal information as the mother during the VA interview. Our primary hypothesis is that the COD assigned by the FIRST BREATH Community Coordinator will be the same as the COD assigned by the Physician Panel in greater than 70% of early neonatal deaths (ENDs), when both use the same VA and FIRST BREATH data.
The purpose of this study is to compare the therapeutic combination of I.V. eflornithine + oral nifurtimox to the standard IV eflornithine regimen in terms of therapeutic efficacy and clinical safety, in patients suffering from Trypanosoma brucei gambiense (Tbg) human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) in the meningoencephalitic phase.
In developing countries, neonatal death from birth asphyxia is a major problem. This study will be conducted in several countries to determine if the combined Neonatal Resuscitation Program/Essential Newborn Care Program compared to the new World Health Organization (WHO) basic perinatal care education of health care providers (Essential Newborn Care Program) results in reduced mortality due to perinatal asphyxia.
Smoking can contribute to many health problems for mothers and their babies. In developing countries, there is little information about the number of pregnant women that smoke and the reasons why some pregnant women choose to smoke. The purpose of this multi-site tobacco use survey is to obtain information on knowledge, attitudes and behaviors among pregnant women in diverse populations regarding tobacco products.