There are about 94 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Gambia. 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.
The last decade has witnessed an important reduction of the mortality in children under 5 years but such reduction has not impacted in neonates. Mortality in neonates contributes 40% of all deaths occurring in children below 5 years of age. Severe bacterial disease is among the leading causes of neonatal deaths. Bacterial disease follows bacterial infection. Individuals can be infected without developing disease (carriage stage) but infection is needed to subsequently develop disease. In sub-Saharan Africa, bacterial carriage (i.e. in the birth canal and/or nasopharyngeal tract) is very common in all age groups, with the consequence that occurrence of bacterial disease is one of the highest in the world. Newborns can be infected during labour - when passing through the birth canal - and during the first days/weeks of life, as a consequence of the close physical contact with the mother, if the latter carries bacteria in the nasopharyngeal tract. If the mother is an important source of bacterial infection to the newborn, treating mothers with a powerful antibiotic during labour should decrease bacterial carriage and therefore diminish the risk of bacterial transmission to the newborn during the first days/weeks of life, which should in turn result in the lower occurrence of severe bacterial disease and hence lower mortality. The purpose of this trial is to evaluate the impact of a single oral dose of azithromycin given to women in labour on bacterial carriage of the newborn as well as the women during the first month after delivery. The investigators have selected an antibiotic (azithromycin) that in sub-Saharan Africa has already shown both a strong impact on bacterial nasopharyngeal carriage and on all-cause mortality when administered to everybody in a community (mass drug administration). This specific antibiotic has several advantages for being deployable as a simple intervention in rural Africa, i.e. it requires a single oral administration, it has no special storage requirements and it has the potential to eliminate many of the bacteria commonly causing severe disease in newborn. This clinical trial will be conducted in a peri-urban health facility in Western Gambia. If an impact is shown, the next step would be to conduct a larger study aiming at establishing if the intervention, implemented at a lower level of care (most African women deliver at home assisted by traditional birth assistants), decreases the occurrence of neonatal bacterial disease
Personal exposure to Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) is a known risk factor of severe pneumonia, which is the number one killer of children under five in developing countries. The main source of IAP in developing countries is cooking fires, with an estimated 3 billion people still reliant on biomass stoves for their daily cooking. This study will test the effectiveness of an intervention aimed to reduce IAP, as well as help to quantify the relationship between exposure (IAP) and infection (pneumococcal carriage). In Phase I (adjunct pilot study L2010.99), 3 fuels and 5 stoves were tested to measure harmful pollutant emissions. The preliminary results showed that the largest difference was found in the fuels (briquettes cleaner than wood), with a smaller difference found between a couple of the improved stoves and the traditional 3-stone. Re-testing of selected stove/fuel combinations to confirm findings has just been completed. Phase II (this proposal) will test the biomass briquettes in a randomized clinical trial to measure actual IAP reductions in households. A proof of concept pneumococcal survey will also be conducted as a secondary study to see whether reduced exposure to IAP affects pneumococcal carriage in babies and mothers
This is a cluster Tuberculosis (TB) randomized trial in which enhanced case finding (ECF) strategy will be compared to passive TB case reporting in The Gambia. And that the impact of ECF on community and household transmission of TB will also be assessed. The hypothesis is a cluster randomized trial of an enhanced case finding (ECF) strategy will increase TB case notifications in The Gambia and reduce TB burden in the study area in a cost effective manner. The impact of ECF on community and household transmission of TB will also be assessed. The investigators hope this trial will contribute to this evidence base. The timing alongside a nationwide TB prevalence survey is particularly of benefit as that would provide a baseline for disease burden against which the investigators may be able to compare case notification or case detection in selected clusters
The primary trial objective is to determine the clinically effective dose of orally administered pyronaridine/artesunate (Pyramax®, PA) with a 3:1 ratio to treat adults with acute, symptomatic, uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria in South East Asia and Africa. Secondary trial objectives are to determine the safety of once-daily dosing for 3 days of PA and to explore possible ethnic differences in safety or efficacy.
Vitamin A supplementation (VAS) significantly reduces all-cause mortality when given after 6 months of age, but has a null or detrimental effect when given between 1-5 months. Studies of neonatal VAS (NNVAS) have produced conflicting findings. These age-pattern variations might result from immunological interactions between VAS and vaccines. The potential efficacy of NNVAS is being retested in 3 large new intervention trials with mortality as endpoint. Complementary mechanistic studies in animals and in human infants in The Gambia (this proposal) and Bangladesh have been commissioned to run in parallel. The investigators will use a 2-arm double blind RCT to test whether NNVAS modulates the early ontogeny of human immune development. Neonates, recruited through a peri-urban clinic in The Gambia, will receive either 50,000 International Units (IU) VAS orally within 48 hours of birth (intervention group, n=100) or a placebo (control group, n=100). Male and female neonates will be randomized separately at enrolment for later analyses by sex. All infants will be followed up from birth to age 1 year. A broad panel of immunological outcomes will examine whether NNVAS: a). normalises thymic development (thymic index by ultrasound); b). skews mycobacterial and recall antigen responses towards a Th2 profile; c). diminishes Th1 and Th17 reactivity to mycobacterial and recall antigens; d). diminishes the tuberculin skin test (TST) response; e). causes increased innate immune reactivity; f). increases the frequency of circulating regulatory T cells (Tregs) expressing gut homing receptors; g). enhances B cell immune responses after routine vaccination (increase of B cell numbers and activation status); h). increases circulating IgA in mucosal immune compartment, especially oral polio vaccine (OPV) specific IgA post-vaccination; i). decreases bacterial translocation, by improving mucosal barrier function; and j). decreases markers of infection or inflammation. Growth and morbidity will also be assessed.
Infants in malaria-endemic regions of Africa are an important target for vaccination against malaria in view of the enormous disease burden of malaria in this population. The purpose of this trial is to assess the safety and immunogenicity of MVA ME-TRAP and AdCH63 ME-TRAP candidate vaccines in healthy children in a malaria endemic region. The regimen proposed here has protected non-immune volunteers in Oxford against sporozoite challenge, and so may be protective against naturally acquired infection in the Gambia. Administration of AdCh63 ME-TRAP and MVA ME-TRAP to infants in this study will occur at intervals of at least two weeks from the administration of routine infant immunisations, given according to the Gambian EPI.
The purpose of this trial is to assess the safety and immunogenicity of MVA ME-TRAP and AdCH63 ME-TRAP candidate vaccines in healthy children and adult volunteers in a malaria endemic region. The regimen proposed here has protected non-immune volunteers in Oxford against sporozoite challenge, and so may be protective against naturally acquired infection in The Gambia.
This study will assess the impact on nasopharyngeal carriage, safety and immunogenicity of GSK Biologicals' pneumococcal vaccine 2189242A given as a 3-dose vaccination course and co-administered with other routine paediatric vaccines in infants in The Gambia. Two formulations containing different doses of pneumococcal antigen and two different schedules will be tested in infants.
This purpose of the study is to assess the safety and immunogenicity of a GSK Biologicals' candidate tuberculosis vaccine (692342) when administered concomitantly with or after the Expanded Programme of Immunisation vaccines regimen to healthy infants aged between and including 2 and 7 months, living in a tuberculosis endemic region.
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.