There are about 340 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Malawi. 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.
This study will evaluate the safety and efficacy of the human monoclonal antibody (mAb) VRC-HIVMAB060-00-AB (VRC01) in preventing HIV-1 infection in high-risk, HIV-uninfected women.
Task shifting of less complex healthcare tasks to lay health workers (LHWs) is increasingly employed strategy to address the global shortage of skilled health workers. Despite availability of effective treatment, tuberculosis (TB) remains an important cause of mortality with 1.3 million lives lost globally to TB in 2012. The greatest proportion of new TB cases occurs in Africa and over 95% of TB deaths occur in low income countries (LICs). In response to the combined high TB burden and severe healthcare worker shortages in these settings, outpatient TB care is among the tasks commonly shifted to LHWs. LHWs are community members who have received some training but are not healthcare professionals. Randomised trials show LHWs improve access to basic health services and TB treatment outcomes, however, insufficient training and supervision are recognized barriers to their effectiveness. The investigators' goal is to improve TB care provided by LHWs in Malawi by implementing and evaluating a knowledge translation (KT) strategy designed to facilitate incorporation of evidence into LHW practice. The investigators will employ a mixed methods design including a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial to evaluate effectiveness of the strategy and qualitative methods to understand barriers and facilitators to scalability and sustainability of the program.
Pneumonia mortality rates in African countries like Malawi are high and increased further in children -exposed or infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as well as those that are severely malnourished or severely hypoxemic. Treatment innovations are needed. Bubble continuous positive airway pressure (bCPAP) improves oxygenation and ventilation and is a simple, relatively inexpensive adaptation of conventional continuous positive airway pressure potentially suitable for low-resource settings. bCPAP has been demonstrated to improve outcomes in neonates less than 1 month of age. Recently, a limited number of hospitals are using bCPAP to escalate pneumonia care for older African children failing standard treatment with antibiotics and oxygen. Supportive evidence for this approach is observational only. Quality randomized studies comparing bCPAP versus a standard-of-care control group that includes low-flow oxygen therapy and using a primary endpoint of mortality are not available in low-resource settings including high prevalence HIV countries like Malawi. Demonstrating a mortality benefit with bCPAP is needed to support further investment and scale up of bCPAP in the care of older Malawian children 1-59 months of age with World Health Organization (WHO) severe pneumonia complicated by HIV and/or malnutrition or severe hypoxemia. With the full support of the Malawi Ministry of Health and in collaboration with external experts from Lilongwe Medical Relief Trust and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center investigators plan to address this critical evidence gap by conducting a randomized controlled study determining bCPAP outcomes, compared to the currently recommended standard of care endorsed by the WHO and Malawi national pneumonia guidelines, in hospitalized Malawian children with WHO-defined severe pneumonia complicated by a co-morbidity ((1) HIV-infection, (2) HIV-exposure without infection, (3) severely malnourished) or WHO pneumonia with severe hypoxemia and without a co-morbidity. The investigators hypothesize that bCPAP will reduce the mortality of Malawian children with WHO-defined severe pneumonia.
To determine if 12 months of legume-based complementary foods is effective in reducing or reversing EED and linear growth faltering in a cohort of Malawian children, aged 12-35 months to see if these improvements are correlated with specific changes in the enteric microbiome.
To determine if 6 months of legume-based complementary foods is effective in reducing or reversing EED and linear growth faltering in a cohort of Malawian children, aged 6-11 months to see if these improvements are correlated with specific changes in the enteric microbiome.
Chronic pulmonary disease (CLD) is the most common manifestation of HIV/AIDS among children, accounting for more than 50% of HIV-associated mortality. Recently, a novel form of CLD, affecting more than 30% of African HIV-infected older children was described by Ferrand et al in Zimbabwe, high-resolution CT scanning findings showed predominantly small airways disease consistent with constrictive obliterative bronchiolitis (OB). . Azithromycin has anti-inflammatory activity and treatment of CLD with this agent may lead to suppression of generalized immune activation. This specific aims of this project are to: 1. Primary objective: To investigate whether adjuvant treatment with azithromycin results in improvement in lung function in HIV-infected children with chronic lung disease, who are stable on antiretroviral therapy. 2. Secondary objectives: 1. To investigate the intervention effect on mortality, exacerbations of lung disease, quality of life, morbidity. 2. To investigate adverse events related to azithromycin treatment In total, 400 children aged 6-16 years, living with HIV and diagnosed with CLD will be enrolled at Harare Children´s Hospital in Harare (Zimbabwe) and Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre (Malawi). These will receive weekly treatment with azithromycin or placebo during 12 months. Another 100 children (50 per site) living with HIV but with no CLD will be enrolled as a comparison group for laboratory sub-studies. Lung function will be assess using spirometry and the Forced expiratory volume in the first minute (FEV1) will be the primary outcome. The mean change in FEV1 z-score levels will be compared between trial arms after 12 months of initiation of azithromycin treatment.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether one or two four-month regimens of tuberculosis treatment are as effective as a standard six-month regimen for treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). All three regimens are administered daily, seven days each week, with direct observation of each dose by a health-care worker at least five of the seven days of each week. The standard six-month regimen is two months of isoniazid, rifampin, ethambutol, and pyrazinamide followed by four months of isoniazid and rifampin. The first short regimen is a single substitution of rifapentine for rifampin: two months of isoniazid, rifapentine, ethambutol, and pyrazinamide, followed by two months of isoniazid and rifapentine. The second short regimen is a double substitution of rifapentine for rifampin and moxifloxacin for ethambutol: two months of isoniazid, rifapentine, moxifloxacin, and pyrazinamide, followed by two months of isoniazid, rifapentine, and moxifloxacin. Target enrollment is 2500 participants. Each study participant will remain in the study for 18 months in order to include at least 12 months of evaluation of whether the participant's TB recurs.
CVD accounts for 15% of all deaths in Malawi. Both HIV and ART are risk factors for CVD through direct toxic and inflammatory cardiovascular effects. (44,45). At the moment, one out of every 10 Malawian is HIV positive and roughly 8 out of 10 of those infected are now on ART (2). Therefore, HIV and ART may be contributing to the burden of CVD in Malawi. Currently, there are only a few studies assessing CVD risk in the HIV patient population on ART. In Malawi, no such studies exist. Therefore, the investigators propose a novel study assessing baseline cardiovascular disease risk using two novel ultrasound technologies in HIV patients on ART. Cardiovascular disease risk will be assessed using surrogate cardiovascular markers of disease. These surrogates include markers of endothelial function and cardiovascular modulating inflammatory biomarkers. The inflammatory biomarkers measured will be TNF-alpha, IL-6, and CRP. Aspirin, by way of its antiplatelet and anti-inflammatory effect has been demonstrated to inhibit atherosclerosis by way of decreasing TNF-alpha, IL-6, CRP and improving endothelial function. Therefore a second aim of the study will be to demonstrate that aspirin improves surrogate markers of atherosclerosis.
Lighthouse, in cooperation with the University Heidelberg Public Health Institute and the University Köln (Cologne) would like to set up a cohort to study baseline characteristics and long-term clinical outcomes of patients using Tenofovir based Antiretroviral Therapy at the Lighthouse. As of March 2014, patients above 18 years and giving informed consent coming to the Lighthouse to newly initiate ART will be approached to enroll in the cohort. The results will be disseminated both nationally at the Ministry of Health Technical Working Group (TWG), at the annual Research Dissemination and Best Practices conferences of the College of Medicine and National AIDS Commission as well as internationally. The results will also be written up for publication in appropriate peer-reviewed journals.
Children who recover from moderate acute malnutrition in Malawi remain at high risk for relapse or death in the year following recovery. This cluster-randomized trial will evaluate a package of affordable, safe, proven interventions specifically targeted to this population of children in an attempt to decrease their risk of relapse or death following recovery from moderate acute malnutrition. These children will be followed for a year following recovery to assess rates of relapse and mortality.