There are about 42 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Niger. 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.
Each year, an estimated 230,000 HIV-infected women in need of services for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) give birth in Nigeria, more than in any other nation in the world. Vanderbilt University (VU), through its affiliate, Friends in Global Health (FGH), is currently supporting HIV/AIDS services in North-Central Nigeria. These sites are predominantly rural primary health centers (PHCs) where shortages of high-cadre health care providers and insufficient laboratory capacity to perform CD4+ cell count testing have been major barriers to effective PMTCT scale-up. A systematic reassignment of patient care responsibilities coupled with the adoption of point-of-care (POC) CD4+ cell count testing will facilitate the ability of lower-cadre health providers to manage PMTCT care, including the provision and scale-up of antiretroviral treatment (ART) to pregnant women in these rural, decentralized sites. A system wherein men are facilitated to accompany their wives to ANC appointments will create an important opportunity to address entrenched gender norms. The investigators therefore propose using community and facility-based measures to encourage male partners to accompany their spouses for ANC. As influential community members, male partners can assist their spouses to utilize culturally-sensitive, sustainable and integrated PMTCT care provided by lower-cadre providers in these resource-constrained settings. The investigators propose a parallel, cluster randomized trial to evaluate the impact of a family-focused PMTCT package that includes: 1) task-shifting to lower-cadre providers at PMTCT sites; 2) POC CD4+ cell count testing; (3) integrated mother-infant care; and (4)) a prominent role for influential family members (male partners), working in close partnership with community-based health workers/volunteers. The specific aims of this study are: 1. To evaluate whether implementation of the integrated PMTCT package in primary level antenatal clinics (ANC) increases the proportion of eligible pregnant women who initiate antiretroviral medications for the purposes of PMTCT. The investigators hypothesize that the provision of the PMTCT package in intervention clinics will improve PMTCT antiretroviral uptake rates among eligible women during pregnancy from 40% to 65%. 2. To determine whether implementation of the PMTCT package improves postpartum retention of mother-infant pairs at 6 and 12 weeks. The investigators hypothesize that postpartum retention rates among mother-infant pairs attending intervention sites will be >20% higher at 6 weeks when compared to mother-infant pairs receiving care in non-intervention sites. 3. Conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) of the impact of this novel PMTCT intervention compared to the existing standard-of-care referral model. The investigators hypothesize that the proposed intervention will be more cost-effective than the existing model of care. In addition, two qualitative evaluations will be conducted in order to: 1. Assess client satisfaction with health services, comparing PMTCT services provided by lower level vs. higher level cadre health workers; and 2. Evaluate health care worker satisfaction with the new PMTCT service delivery model.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE : To determine whether mothers, given minimal group training, are capable of using a MUAC (mid-upper arm circumference) bracelet to screen their children for malnutrition and categorise them into one of three groups : 'red' (SAM ; severe acute malnutrition), 'yellow' (MAM ; moderate acute malnutrition) or 'green' (normal nutritional status) SECONDARY OBJECTIVES : To establish whether there is a difference in the MUAC value if measured on the right arm as opposed to the left, in young children To determine whether there is a difference in the MUAC value if the mid upper arm position is determined visually as opposed to being measured in the 'classical' fashion
Study treatments: - Artemether-lumefantrine - Artesunate-amodiaquine - Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine Location: Maradi, Niger Principal Objective: To measure the clinical and parasitological efficacy of the three artemisinin combination therapies over a period of 42 days from the start of treatment and with polymerase chain reaction assay (PCR) adjustment. Secondary objectives: - To determine the blood concentration of the non-artemisinin component of the treatment (lumefantrine, desethylamodiaquine or piperaquine) at day 7 - To assess the incidence of adverse events during the follow-up period; - To measure speed of parasite clearance Methods: In vivo non comparative study as for WHO standardised protocol. The study also measure the concentration of the non-artemisinin component. Target population: Children under 5 years of age consulting the integrated health centres of Andoumé and Dix-sept portes in Maradi. Sample size: 221 patients per study treatment; 663 patients in total. Treatment allocation: Random. Outcomes: - Early treatment failure, - Late clinical failure, - Late parasitological failure, - Adequate clinical and parasitological response. Analysis: - Cumulative success or failure rate (Kaplan-Meier analysis). - Proportions of early treatment failures, late clinical failures, late parasitological failures, and adequate clinical and parasitological response (called also Per-protocol analysis).
This study will be conducted as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to compare routine antibiotic prescription vs. no routine antibiotic prescription in the management of uncomplicated cases of severe acute malnutrition treated in the community in terms of nutritional recovery. The investigators hypothesize that there will be no significant difference in terms of the risk of nutritional recovery among children uncomplicated cases of severe acute malnutrition treated in the community that receive routine antibiotic prescription and those who receive no routine antibiotic prescription.
This facility-based, multi-center randomized controlled trial (RCT) will test the non-inferiority of short-term (7 day) urethral catheterization compared to longer-term (14 day) urethral catheterization in terms of predicting fistula repair breakdown three months following urinary fistula repair surgery. The study will be conducted among 507 women with simple fistula presenting at 8 study sites in Sub-Saharan Africa for fistula repair surgery.
Meningococcal disease occurs throughout the world but attack rates in the Sahelian and sub-Sahelian regions of Africa - the African meningitis belt - are many times higher than those seen in any other part of the world. During 2009, over 70,000 meningitis cases and 3,200 deaths were reported in Nigeria, Niger, and Chad alone. In 2001, a public private partnership between WHO and PATH was created, the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP). The MVP set out to develop an affordable meningococcal serogroup A conjugate vaccine (MenAfriVac™) for use in the African meningitis belt. This was successfully achieved, and the new vaccine, produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII), was granted a licence in 2009 for international export. The vaccine dossier was submitted to WHO for prequalification at the beginning of 2010. Introduction through mass vaccination is planned in three African Meningitis belt countries in 2010 (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger). The implementation of MenAfriVac will be the responsibility of the local Ministry of Health, with the support of the World Health Organization. It is anticipated that this vaccine will be deployed in other countries of the meningitis belt in 2011. This vaccine should provide high levels of direct protection to immunised individuals but, as for serogroup C conjugate vaccines in the United Kingdom, a greater public health impact will be achieved if carriage and transmission of the infection are also prevented. The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSTHM) is coordinating the African Meningococcal Carriage Consortium (MenAfriCar). One of the primary objectives of the MenAfriCar project is to evaluate the impact of the new conjugate vaccine on meningococcal carriage and transmission of serogroup A meningococci in Mali, Niger and Chad. A community-based prospective, pre- and post intervention, observational study will be conducted. MenAfriCar will also help to develop research capacity in the participating African countries.
Trachoma is a disease of poverty, which in the hyperendemic areas affects all individuals by the time they are two years old. Active disease is concentrated in children and occurs sporadically in adults. Infection is more widespread. It is anticipated that 25% of the children will be blinded by this disease if they live to be 60 years of age. The blindness rates are higher in women, presumably because of their closer contact with children who can infect them and add to damage from infections the women had while young. This proposal is to better define how azithromycin in community-based treatment can be used to eliminate blinding trachoma. We will also take the opportunity to join these field studies with genetic epidemiologic studies to better understand the dynamic epidemiology of Chlamydia trachomatis infection in a trachoma endemic area. The empiric data generated from the treatment/follow-up studies, together with the information on sources and spread patterns from genetic epidemiology will be used to generate more robust models to guide future treatment/re-treatment protocols. We propose to conduct a randomized, community based trial in the Maradi region of Niger to test the hypothesis that two community wide azithromycin treatments, spaced one month apart, are significantly more effective in reducing ocular C. trachomatis infection and trachoma at one year compared to a single mass azithromycin treatment.
In this study, we will compare the safety and efficacy of 400 mcg sublingually administered misoprostol alone to standard surgical care for the treatment of incomplete abortion. This study will provide important data on the role of misoprostol in health services offering an array of treatments for incomplete abortion. Women could significantly benefit from a non-invasive treatment option for incomplete abortion. While safe surgical services are becoming more widespread, there is still a serious risk of complications from these procedures. Especially in developing countries, infection, hemorrhage and uterine damage are still too common. Medical treatment of incomplete abortion using misoprostol would be a tremendous step to reducing morbidity and mortality due to abortion complications.