There are about 141 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.
Although Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax), one of the five malaria species causing parasites, has the widest geographical distribution, it is rare in sub-Saharan Africa due to the absence of a red blood cell receptor (Duffy antigen) in black Africans. Duffy-negative individuals are, for the most part, therefore refractory to P. vivax infection and the Duffy-negative phenotype is found at highest frequencies in Africa, whereas it is relatively rare elsewhere. P. vivax has however, been observed as single infections in up to 5% of Duffy-negative febrile patients in one health facility in Dschang, a region of low malaria transmission in Western highlands of Cameroon. Whereas in the littoral South West and Southern forest of Cameroon characterised by high malaria transmission, areas, there are contrasting molecular evidence of human P. vivax infection. While important, the significance is limited from an epidemiological point of view, concerning the source, transmission, distribution range of P. vivax. There is thus a challenge in the true estimation of malaria burden, as well as the attributable parasite species in infections occurring in the low transmission areas of Western Cameroon. As a consequence, our understanding of the local epidemiology of malaria in Western Cameroon warrants formal investigation. The current proposal is a multi-centre observational study. Its purpose is to characterise the malaria species composition and particularly exposure and burden of P. vivax across malaria endemic settings in Cameroon. It will use multiplex serological methods based on quantitative suspension array on finger-stick blood samples collected from febrile patients of ages 1-100 during two malaria transmission seasons in different eco-climatic regions in Cameroon.
Type 1 diabetes has been poorly characterised, with very sparse information available in the literature about the characteristics of the disease in Africa. Atypical young onset diabetes is often reported by clinicians in sub-Saharan Africa, including patients who have the phenotype of type 1 diabetes but do not appear to have an absolute insulin requirement. The onset of type 1 diabetes in many sub-Saharan African populations seem to occur at later ages (20s to 40s) than what is generally seen in Caucasian populations. The investigators seek to characterise young-onset insulin treated diabetes (clinically diagnosed type 1 diabetes) in sub-Saharan Africa;
Cervical cancer remains a major public health challenge in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) due to financial and logistical issues. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation for cervical cancer screening in LMICs includes Human Papillomavirus (HPV) testing as primary screening followed by visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) and treatment. However, VIA is a subjective procedure dependent on the healthcare provider's experience. Therefore, an objective approach based on quantitative diagnostic algorithms is desirable to improve performance of VIA. With this objective and in a collaboration between the Gynecology and Obstetrics Department of the Geneva University Hospital (HUG) and the Swiss Institute of Technology (EPFL), our group started the development of an automated smartphone-based image classification device called AVC (for Automatic VIA Classifier). Two-minute videos of the cervix are recorded during VIA and classified using an artificial neural network (ANN) and image processing techniques to differentiate precancer and cancer from non-neoplastic cervical tissue. The result is displayed on the smartphone screen with a delimitation map of the lesions when appropriate. The key feature used for classification is the dynamic of cervical acetowhitening during the 120 second following the application of acetic acid. Precancerous and cancerous cells whiten more rapidly than non-cancerous ones and their whiteness persists stronger overtime. Our aim is to assess the diagnostic performance of the AVC and to compare it with the performance of current triage tests (VIA and cytology). Histopathological examination will serve as reference standard. Participants' and providers' acceptability will also be considered as part of the study. The study will be nested in an ongoing cervical cancer screening program called "3T-approach" (for Test, Triage and Treat) which includes HPV self-sampling for women aged 30 to 49 years, followed by VIA triage and treatment if needed. The AVC will be evaluated in this context. The study's risk category is A according to swiss ethical guidelines. This decision is based on the fact that the planned measures for sampling biological material or collecting personal data entail only minimal risks and burdens.
DATURA trial is a phase III, multicenter, two-arm, open-label, randomized superiority trial to compare the efficacy and the safety of an intensified tuberculosis (TB) regimen versus standard TB treatment in HIV-infected adults and adolescents hospitalized for TB with CD4 ≤ 100 cells/μL over 48 weeks: - Intensified TB treatment regimen: increased doses of rifampicin and isoniazid together with standard-dose of pyrazinamide and ethambutol for 8 weeks in addition to prednisone for 6 weeks and albendazole for 3 days - WHO standard TB treatment regimen. The continuation phase of TB treatment will be identical in the two arms: 4 months of rifampicin and isoniazid at standard doses.
Recently, a lot of side effects have been identified from the perioperative use of opioids. To remedy this, anesthesia research has recently focused on providing safe general anesthesia without opioids in a new concept or anesthetic technic called Opiod Free Anesthesia (OFA). Evidence on the effectiveness and safety of OFA is scarce in Africa, with no report from Cameroon.The aim of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of an adapted OFA protocol as well as its efficacy and safety in very painful surgeries like gynaecology surgery in a low-resource setting.
This is an exploratory study to evaluate the efficacy of Doxycycline (200mg on D1 to D7) and Rivaroxaban (15 mg daily on D1 to D7) versus the combination of Hydroxychloroquine (400 mg on D1 to D7) and Azithromycin (500 mg on D1 and 250mg on D2 to D5) as per national standard to treat ambulatory mild COVID-19 patients, with the aim to achieve early negativity of RT-PCR of SARS-CoV-2 from nasopharyngeal swab, and early clinical improvement and prevention of severe disease.
ANRS 12406 EvvA is an observational, longitudinal and monocentric study evaluating the virological success rate in HIV-infected adolescents on antiretroviral therapy in Cameroon. The main objective of the study is to estimate the rate of virological suppression among adolescents on antiretroviral therapy for more than 6 months in Cameroon
The main aim of this study is to determine the effect of awareness campaigns by school children targeting their communities on knowledge, attitudes, and practices in malaria control in the Mbandjock health district. A two-arm, open-label, randomized controlled clinical trial will be adopted with the Mbandjock Health District as the test district and Sa'a Health District as control Health District. This will last from January 2017 to December 2020. The Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) method was used. The health area was selected in the ratio 2:1. A total of 209 pupils and 209 adults shall be enrolled from households located in Mbandjock. Similarly, 114 pupils and 114 adults will be recruited in Sa'a. In addition, 57 teachers shall be enrolled in the District of Mbandjock only. A total of 703 participants shall be enrolled during the study.
Filarial nematodes modulate the host immune response to promote regulatory and T helper type 2 immune responses, which were shown to influence concomitant infections. Indeed, several studies showed that increased susceptibility and worsened disease course of HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria in filarial endemic regions. Moreover, the investigators demonstrated that M. perstans infections polarize and suppress immune responses with likely consequences for concomitant infections and vaccine-induced protection. In addition, the investigators observed altered frequencies of natural killer and regulatory T and B cells in filarial and M. tuberculosis co-infected individuals and that M. perstans influences CD4+ T cell function and immune responses upon purified protein derivative antigen stimulation. Nevertheless, the consequences of manifestation of TB disease and influence on TB vaccination remains unknown. Thus, the trial aim to address two main questions with high clinical relevance: 1) Does filarial infection influence disease severity and recovery in tuberculosis patients? 2) Does filarial infection influence Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-induced protection against disease progression in vaccinated children?
The TB-Speed Decentralisation study aims to increase childhood Tuberculosis (TB) case detection at district hospital (DH) and Primary health Care (PHC) levels using adapted and child-friendly specimen collection methods, i.e. Nasopharyngeal Aspirate (NPA) and stool samples, sensitive microbiological detection tests (Ultra) close to the point-of-care (Omni/G1(Edge)), reinforced training on clinical diagnosis, and standardized CXR quality and interpretation using digital radiography. The TB-Speed Decentralisation study will evaluate the impact of an innovative patient care level diagnostic approach deployed at DH and PHC levels, namely the DH focused and the PHC focused decentralization strategies. This is aimed at, improving case detection in 6 high TB incidence in low/moderate resource countries: Cambodia, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Uganda, and compare effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the two different decentralization approaches. The hypothesis is that, in countries with high and very high TB incidence (100-299 and ≥300 cases/100,000 population/year, respectively), a systematic approach to the screening for and diagnosis of TB in sick children presenting to the health system will increase childhood TB case detection, especially PTB, which represents the majority of the disease burden (>75% of case)(40). The study also hypothesizes that sputum collection using battery-operated suction machines and microbiological TB diagnosis using Omni/G1 (Edge) can be decentralized to PHC level, thus enabling TB diagnosis and treatment in children at PHC level.