There are about 138 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Cameroon. 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.
Background: Combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) can bring HIV-1 in blood plasma to level undetectable by standard tests and allow a near-normal life expectancy for HIV-infected individuals. Unfortunately, cART is not curative, as within a few weeks of treatment cessation, HIV viremia in most patients rebounds except for rare elite or post-treatment controllers of viremia. The primary source of this rebound is the highly stable reservoir of latent yet replication-competent HIV-1 proviruses integrated into the genomic DNA of resting memory CD4+ T cells. To achieve a cure for HIV, understanding the cell reservoir environment is of paramount importance. The size and nature of viral reservoir might vary per timing of therapy, therapeutic response, ART duration, and immune response. Mechanisms of reservoir maintenance generally depend on levels/type of immune recognition, dynamics of viral persistence are different between pediatric and adult populations, owing to, but not limited to, types/numbers of target cells, efficiency in clearing HIV-infected cells, plasma viremia and HIV drug resistance patterns. This difference could become more evident as these children grow toward adolescence (increasing population due to ART benefits), a stage during which suboptimal adherence is frequent, leading to viral rebound and archiving of resistant patterns. Objectives: We plan to conduct a cross sectional study with the aim to characterize HIV reservoirs and their variability according to virological and immunological profiles of non-B HIV-1 vertically infected adolescents receiving antiretroviral therapy. Specifically, we shall (1) evaluate the size of HIV reservoir; (2) Determine HIV-1 genetic variability and drug resistance in cellular reservoirs; (3) Characterize immune activation/inflammation of HIV infected adolescents. Methods: We plan to conduct an observational and comparative study involving 90 HIV-1 non-B infected adolescents aged 10-19 years vertically infected, have been on ART for at least 12 months selected from a cohort of the ongoing EDCTP-READY study; intravenous blood will be collected for CD4/CD8 count, plasmatic viral load, PBMCs isolation, immune activation/inflammatory markers, genotyping and Viral reservoir quantification. We will as well recruit a group of 30 HIV-negative adolescents as control for immunological profiling. Overall impact: Our findings will help in advancing knowledge on HIV reservoir, in terms of size and genetic variability in adolescents living with HIV (ADLHIV). Such evidence will also help in understanding the effects of ART timing and duration on the size of reservoirs among ADLHIV, a unique population from whom findings generated will largely contribute in designing functional cure strategies in this vulnerable population.
Onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness, is one of the disease targeted for elimination by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the group of Neglected Tropical Diseases. Existing diagnostic tools for onchocerciasis have limitations that make mapping, epidemiological assessments and verification of elimination of onchocerciasis difficult. It is in this context that WHO, in its 2021-2030 roadmap for onchocerciasis, has identified the development of new diagnostic tests, or the improvement of existing diagnostic tests, as a critical condition for achieving the goal of eliminating onchocerciasis transmission. To this end, a series of cross-sectional studies will be carried out in Cameroun over a one year period to collect and characterize biological samples for the development and evaluation of a new rapid diagnostic test for onchocerciasis. The study will target individuals aged 18 and over, mono-infected with one of the filarial species Onchocerca volvulus, Loa loa or Mansonella perstans; and non-infected. At the end of this study, data on the endemicity of onchocerciasis, loiasis and mansonellosis in the selected communities will be updated. More importantly, a new rapid diagnostic test will be developed, which can then be used to monitor the activities of onchocerciasis control programs.
The objective of the study is to identify the pathophysiological mechanisms responsible for the induction and maintenance of negative serologies by EIA tests in HIV-infected children treated early with HAART in the ANRS 12225-Pediacam III cohort in Cameroon The hypothesis of better control of HIV infection through interactions between immunological, viral, and genetic factors was made to build the following objectives: - Immunological aspect: lack of humoral response or immune activation - Virological aspect: Reduced HIV reservoir size - Determine the HLA phenotype in the different groups of children included and the KIR genotypes.
This is a prospective observational study enrolling People Living with HIV (PLHIV) who are on a Dolutegravir-based AntiRetroviral Treatment (ART) regimen and experiencing virologic failure. Virologic failure is defined as two consecutive viral load measurements of >1000 copies/mL of blood. The main aim of the study is to identify the drug-resistance mutations in the viral genome that are associated with this failure. To achieve this goal, patients fulfilling the eligibility criteria will be invited for a single study visit for the collection of blood. The extracted HIV virus will be sequenced through whole genome sequencing methods to identify the drug-resistance mutations. The study is conducted in 15-20 countries within six regions of the IeDEA cohort (International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS).
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes are increasing in countries where malaria transmission is common. This study aims to investigate the relationship between NCDs and parasitic infections in Cameroon. The investigators will assess the risk of malaria, as well as other parasitic diseases, in a prospectively followed group of adults with diabetes, compared with those without diabetes. Malaria parasites and intestinal worms will be tested using blood and stool collected at four time points during a one-year follow-up. In addition, this project will investigate how natural protection against malaria is affected by diabetes and other risk factors for heart diseases.
Phase III trial evaluating doravirine as an alternative to dolutegravir in treatment naïve people living with HIV-1 infection.
Cervical cancer is a public health problem in Cameroon.In 2020, the country had a crude incidence of 20.2 per 100 000 women for an incidence to mortality ratio of 0.65. As for now, the country does not have a national screening program to combat the disease. Only 6% of cameroonian women have once been screened for cervical cancer. In order to increase screening uptake so as to reach 70% recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), a home-based cervical cancer screening approach is proposed. The objective of our study is to compare two recruitment strategies for cervical cancer screening in rural Cameroon.
The Plus Project will assess the impact, operational feasibility, efficacy, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of PMC. Specifically, the impact evaluation will involve monitoring a passive cohort of all children in the study area reporting all doses of SP received and the number of confirmed cases of malaria and anaemia, as well as a prospective active cohort of children who will have seven home visits over an 18-month period. The total number of participants is expected to be approximately 2,080 children in the areas served by 35 health centres in Cameroon. The results of this study will allow direct evaluation of the protective efficacy of PMC on malaria incidence, severe anaemia, and malaria mortality.
The aim of this study is to investigate if diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome affects disease presentation and severity of malaria in adults in a hospital setting in Cameroon.
According to the WHO, contact tracing - along with robust testing, isolation, and care of cases is a key strategy for interrupting chains of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and reducing mortality associated with COVID-19. Contact tracing, however, has a number of challenges. These include incomplete identification of contacts, inefficiencies in paper-based reporting systems, complex data management requirements, and delays in the identification of contacts and testing of contacts. In many settings, contact tracing has proven to be too resource-intensive to implement at scale, especially with higher levels of community transmission, highlighting the need for more efficient contact tracing approaches. Digital tools afford the possibility of strengthening contact tracing for COVID-19, in a more efficient way. However, there is limited evidence of the effectiveness and impact of these tools in the COVID-19 response, including contact tracing. This study proposes to compare the cascade of care between two strategies for COVID-19 contact tracing of SARS-CoV-2 infected index patients in Cameroon. In one strategy (intervention), the health facilities and health district testing units will implement contact tracing using a digital tool developed to support the tracing and testing of contacts (addition of a digital contact tracing module to the main platform for COVID-19 testing in Cameroon (Mamal Pro app)). This strategy will be compared to the standard contact tracing process (control), based on the current routine approach (use of the Mamal Pro application without the digital contact tracing module).