There are about 7 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Suriname. 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.
MaHeVi is a multicenter, cross-sectional, population-based study which will include 2500 adults in the health care centers / missions located on the 2 sides of the Maroni River. All major inhabitants of the river border between French Guiana and Suriname may participate, after an extensive communication campaign.The main objective is to estimate the prevalence and status of infection with hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), D (VHD) and HIV in the general adult population of the Maroni River, border between French Guiana and Suriname. After signing the informed consent and pre-test counseling, capillary blood will be collected on blotting paper. Participants will be interviewed on infection risk factors. Positivity for HBsAg, total anti-HBcAb, anti-HCV Ab, total anti-HDV Ab(for HBsAg positive) and HIV p24 Ag or anti-HIV Ab (confirmed by molecular biology for hepatitis and Western Blot for HIV) will inform respectively on the HBV, HCV, HDV and HIV infection status.
Illegal gold miners in French Guiana, a French overseas territory ('département') located in Amazonia, often carry malaria parasites (up to 46.8%). While the Guiana Shield Region aims at malaria elimination, the high prevalence of Plasmodiumin this hard-to-reach population in conjunction with frequent incorrect use of artemisinin-based anti-malarials could favor the emergence of resistant parasites. Due to geographical and regulatory issues in French Guiana, usual malaria control strategies cannot be implemented in this particular context.Therefore, new strategies targeting this specific population in the forest are required. Numerous discussions among health institutions and scientific partners from French Guiana, Brazil and Suriname have led to an innovative project based on the distribution of kits for self-diagnosis and self-treatment of Plasmodium infections. The kit-distribution will be implemented at "resting sites", which are areas across the border of French Guiana regularly frequented by gold miners. The main objective is to increase the appropriate use and complete malaria treatment after a positive malaria diagnosis with a rapid test, which will be evaluated with before-and-after cross-sectional studies. Monitoring indicators will be collected from health mediators at the time of kit distribution and during subsequent visits, and from illegal gold miners themselves, through a smartphone application. The project funding is multisource, including Ministries of Health of the three countries, WHO/PAHO, and the European Union.
This study aims to determine the effect of a supervised home-based physical fitness program on the aerobic capacity, quality of gait and health related quality of life in people with chronic ischemic stroke. Secondly, feasibility of the program for implementing a long term lifestyle change will be investigated.
Suriname is a small developing country in South America with a population of half a million people. Early neonatal death in Suriname is high with 16 per 1000 live births. Unpublished data from the Suriname Perinatal and Infant Mortality Survey estimate contribution of infection to early neonatal mortality at 25% (4 per 1000 live births) of all deaths. In comparison, incidence rates of neonatal sepsis alone are 3.5 per 1000 live births. These numbers indicate an increased burden of neonatal infection in Suriname versus the U.S. In any case about 40 newborns that die each year of infection are a huge loss, also considering the small Surinamese community. Despite this overall idea on the impact of infectious disease in Surinamese neonates exact information regarding incidence, type of infection (e.g., localized, viral, early-onset or late-onset sepsis), risk factors (e.g., insufficient antenatal care, maternal Group B-Streptococcus status), etiology, microbial causes, morbidity, antibiotic treatment (type and duration), and epidemiological determinants (e.g., gestational age, sex, ethnicity) are lacking. From a clinical perspective, there is still a challenge to identify neonates with infection. Neonates are often admitted with ambivalent clinical symptoms and receive preventive antibiotics that are costly, promote pathogen-resistance, and have negative long-term effects (i.e., on the development of the intestinal bacterial flora). Currently, assessment of blood leukocyte or trombocyte counts and levels of CRP are insufficiently sensitive to be used as biomarkers, while confirmation of actual sepsis or meningitis by positive culture results is relatively rare (0.5-3% in the United States). This complicates decisions on duration of antibiotic treatment and hospitalization significantly, while no other biomarkers exist. The circulating isoforms of adhesion molecules (cAMs), which mediate interactions of leukocytes with the vascular endothelium, have been proposed as biomarkers for infection and sepsis. During infection they accumulate in the bloodstream as a result of shedding, which represents their removal from cell surfaces of endothelial cells and leukocytes by enzymes called sheddases. Recently, we have reviewed mechanisms behind shedding of cAMs in neonatal, pediatric and adult sepsis. The shedding process reflects a critical and active process in orchestrating interaction between leukocytes and the endothelium for an effective host response, while minimizing collateral tissue damage. As a result, both plasma levels of cAMs and their sheddases are subject to change during infection and sepsis. Additionally, compelling, albeit limited, data suggest changes of levels of cAMs in CSF in adult and pediatric meningitis. To date, some evidence exists of changes in levels of cAMs during malaria (in children from Malawi) and sepsis, although not sensitive enough to predict outcomes in the clinic. Those levels have never been assessed simultaneously with levels of their sheddases in blood or CSF as a diagnostic tool. We propose that this combined approach may provide more detailed information about the extent of inflammatory activation in neonates.While a balance in levels is maintained under resting conditions or mild (local) infection, it may be perturbed during sepsis or meningitis . Thus, simultaneous measurement of these levels could promote early identification of infection, and may even distinguish between mild infection, systemic infection or meningitis. Currently, manufacturers are rapidly developing Luminex® technology as an advanced, fast, high-throughput and clinically feasible bedside tool for such an approach. We hypothesize that incidence rates of neonates with infection in Suriname are high. We further hypothesize that, upon signs of infection, the simultaneous measurement of cAMs and their SEs in serum and CSF discriminates between infected and non-infected neonates. We aim to: 1) identify and follow neonates at the Academic Hospital Paramaribo with signs of infection to establish incidence rates of infection, and 2) investigate diagnostic potential of our proposed biomarker combination in these neonates for infection, type of infection (e.g., local (mild), sepsis or meningitis) and outcomes.