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.
More than 1.5 million deaths of African children under 5 years of age have been due to Plasmodium falciparum malaria. When HIV and malaria are present as coinfections, they enhance each other's progression. The primary purpose of this study is to compare the malarial infection levels in HIV-infected infants and children receiving protease inhibitor (PI)- or non-nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI)-based highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).
Bacterial meningitis remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in children, especially in countries with limited resources. Efforts to improve the grim outcome have included altering the first line antibiotic therapy, controlling seizures and managing fluids more carefully. Adjuvant therapy of steroids has been used with limited success in children in the West and with no proven value in Malawi and other resource constrained settings. Glycerol has been used to reduce brain oedema in neurosurgery and it has recently been shown to reduce morbidity in childhood meningitis in South America. Paracetamol in a high dosage has been shown to reduce inflammation and cytokine levels in septicaemia with improved outcomes in adults. In Malawi the investigators have tried adjuvant steroids with no improvement in outcome of childhood meningitis. They have recently concluded a study of ceftriaxone which has shown no improvement in mortality though there is less hearing loss than with chloramphenicol and benzyl penicillin. Following the encouraging results of the Childhood South American Study it is important to assess the use of adjuvant glycerol in children in the investigators' setting. Paracetamol is routinely used in meningitis because of the accompanying fever and headache. This is an opportunity to study its place as adjuvant therapy more carefully than has previously been done. The investigators propose a prospective, randomized, double blind 2 by 2 factorial designed study to assess the advantage of ceftriaxone (antibiotic) given with paracetamol and glycerol in combination, singly or with neither adjuvant therapy in childhood bacterial meningitis.
This study tests the hypothesis that infants receiving milk-powder containing fortified spread (lipid-based nutrient supplement) as a complementary food for one year have lower incidence of severe stunting (poor length gain) than infants who are provided with no extra food supplements or maize-soy flour for complementary porridge.
The primary objective of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of 2 intravenous artesunate dosing regimens (2.4 mg/kg initially and at 12, 24, 48, and 72 hours or 4.0 mg/kg initially and at 24 and 48 hours) in clearing P. falciparum parasites in children with severe malaria. Secondary objectives include: - To compare the tolerability and safety of the 2 intravenous artesunate dosing regimens. - To evaluate differences in the pharmacokinetic profile of intravenous artesunate by patient age and clinical presentation.
Drug resistance to a range of antimalarial treatments has become widespread in Africa, South East Asia and South America. Because the rapid spread of drug resistance threatens a public health disaster in these areas of the world and to comply with the WHO-Roll Back Malaria policy of using Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACT), there is a need to develop new, safe, effective and affordable ACT. Chlorproguanil-dapsone-artesunate (CDA)is a new ACT that is being developed for the treatment of uncomplicated falciparum malaria in Africa.
A new approach to HIV prevention currently being studied includes the use of topical microbicides and orally administered anti-HIV drugs. The purpose of this study is to better understand the impact of microbicides in women who are diagnosed with HIV-1 during participation in previous microbicide trials.
In children, it remains quite difficult even in developed countries, to prove a diagnosis of Tuberculosis (TB). New means for diagnosis of this disease are currently being researched. One candidate test is Lipoarabinomannan ELISA from Urine, which has shown good sensitivity of up to 80% in adults. Our study aims to evaluate this test in the diagnosis of children with TB.
This study tests the hypothesis that moderately underweight but not severely wasted 6-17-month old infants receiving fortified spread or maize-spy flour as a food supplement for 12 weeks grow better during the supplementation than infants who do not get any food supplement.
This study tests the hypothesis that moderately underweight but not severely wasted 6-17-month old infants receiving fortified spread or maize-soy flour as a food supplement for 12 weeks grow better during the supplementation than infants who do not get any food supplement.
Malaria is a sickness caused by a germ that can get into a person's body when a mosquito bites them. It can cause fever, headache, body aches and weakness. It can even cause death, especially in children. When malaria is treated with the appropriate medicine(s), it can be cured completely. The purpose of this study is to find out if it is better to use chloroquine alone or in combination with another drug to most effectively treat malaria. About 640 children with malaria, aged 6 months to 5 years of age, from the Blantyre Malaria Project Research Clinic at the Ndirande Health Center in Malawi will be in the study. They will be treated with either chloroquine alone or a combination of chloroquine plus another medication (azithromycin or artesunate or atovaquone-proguanil) every time they get malaria for a year. Blood samples will be collected and tested at least every 4 weeks. Participants will be involved in the study for 1 year.