There are about 289 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Zambia. 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 impact of licensed rotavirus vaccines in LMICs is limited by their lower immunogenicity and efficacy in these settings. Improved vaccines and vaccination schedules would result in substantially greater reductions in infant diarrhoeal disease and mortality. Placebo-controlled trials of new rotavirus vaccines are no longer ethical, leading to challenges for traditional routes of licensure for vaccines that are in the development pipeline. A HIC model of rotavirus would address these challenges, whilst also offering an opportunity to study the causes of poor oral vaccine immunogenicity. Rotarix™ is in routine use in Zambia administered at 6 and 10 weeks infant age. Shedding of rotavirus vaccine after vaccination has recently been explored as a measure of mucosal immunity, analogous to oral poliovirus vaccine challenge models. We propose to explore methodological development of an attenuated vaccine as a HIC model to advance rotavirus immunology and vaccinology in Zambian infants. We will evaluate use of minimally invasive procedures including sublingual/submandibular sampling and stool collection for viral shedding as measures of vaccine-induced and naturally acquired mucosal immunity. This approach holds the potential to develop the first rotavirus HIC model in a low-income country and could be used to accelerate licensure of new rotavirus vaccines and explore causes of poor oral vaccine efficacy as well as correlates of vaccine protection. To do this, we will recruit a cohort of 22 Zambian infants receiving Rotarix™ at 6 and 10 weeks as part of their routine immunisation. Infants will be followed up actively on the day of vaccination, days 1,3,5 and 7 following each vaccine dose for collection of stool and saliva samples. Blood samples for IgA and IgG titres will be collected on days 0, 28, 31 and 56, and standard ELISA methods used to determine vaccine seroconversion. The work brings together collaborators at the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia, Imperial College in UK and Christian Medical College, Vellore in India to prepare the Zambian centre as a potential HIC model site.
This purpose of this study is to look at the best way to offer the Like Father Like Son + Spear & Shield program.
Youth-led strategies remain untested in clinic-based programs to achieve viral suppression (VS) and reduce self-stigma (feelings of worthlessness/shame) among adolescents and young adults (AYA) living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. In response, Project YES! will conduct a randomized controlled trial to test the impact of a theory-based intervention that places trained and paid HIV-positive youth peer mentors (YPMs) in four HIV clinics in Ndola, Zambia. AYA, ages 15 to 24 years, will be randomly assigned to either an intervention arm, consisting of monthly one-on-one and small group sessions with a YPM and optional caregiver support groups, or a usual care arm. Survey data and blood samples will be collected and analyzed to test the hypothesis that youth who are in the intervention group will experience more viral suppression than youth in the comparison group.
The primary objective of this research is to exhaustively document the course and outcomes of hospitalization, labor, delivery, and early postpartum course of up to 15,000 mother-newborn pairs in settings where the occurrence of adverse outcomes is high. The Investigators will gather detailed laboratory, physiologic, and clinical information, and precisely characterize major adverse diagnoses and outcomes. The resulting high-quality, granular, and generalizable data will be used to develop new algorithms to signal actionable intrapartum diagnoses and prospectively stratify women according to their risk for adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes.
This pilot study will evaluate, through quantitative and qualitative methods, whether different treatments for postpartum depression are feasible and acceptable in postpartum HIV infected women on antiretrovirals (ART). The study will take place at several clinics in Lusaka, Zambia.
This is a prospective, multicentre cohort study in which the accuracy and the diagnostic yield of the FujiLAM test will be assessed using a microbiological reference standard, an extended microbiological reference standard and a composite reference standard among inpatient and outpatient people living with HIV (PLHIV).
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has infected over one third of the world's population; of these about 350 million go on to be chronic carriers. Infection with HBV can be self-limiting depending on age and immunity status of the infected person. Acute infection with HBV is cleared within six months of initial infection while chronic infection can last longer than six months. HBV can be transmitted perinatally, sexually, horizontally, through direct contact with infectious body fluids or blood, being pricked with an infected needle and injury from instruments contaminated with infectious body fluid or blood. Certain population groups are at higher risk of infection with HBV. Among these populations is that of health care workers (HCWs). In this population, HBV infection can occur through occupational exposure. In fact, the hepatitis B virus is more contagious than human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) during a needle stick injury (30% versus 0.5%). It is therefore imperative that HCWs are highly knowledgeable about HBV and how they can prevent transmission. Protection from HBV infection can be achieved by means of vaccination after which the HBV vaccine has been shown to be 90-100% effective.
The study team will test a multilevel package of interventions to connect adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) with a source of regular care to provide a sustainable platform for successful implementation of regular human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing and support for linkage to care, retention in care, and adherence to antiviral treatment. Interventions will include integrated wellness care (IWC) clinics and the SHIELD intervention (Support for HIV Integrated Education, Linkages to care, and Destigmatization) to educate and empower AGYW and their families, and to create community-based youth clubs to foster peer support. A cluster randomized controlled trial will be implemented with 6 geographic regions randomized into 3 groups: zones with IWC clinics and SHIELD intervention, zones with only SHIELD intervention, and control zones with no intervention. HIV testing will be assessed among the SHIELD only HIV negative or unknown (HIV-/u) cohort and retention in care along with viral load suppression will be primarily assessed in the IWC clinics and SHIELD HIV positive (HIV+) cohort. In-depth interviews and surveys will be used to gather staff and stakeholder feedback following the trial. Cost-effectiveness of the interventions and budgetary impacts will be assessed through using a cost assessment tool.
The aim of the study is to provide proof that giving fish during early complementary feeding improves infant linear growth outcomes.
In Zambia, 40% of children under five years of age are stunted and 6% are wasted. While the Zambian government has focused on child nutrition in recent years, more focus on holistically improving early child development (ECD) is needed. Through a previous randomized controlled trial, the investigators developed a community-based parenting intervention and demonstrated that this intervention can improve children's developmental outcomes in Zambia, including nutritional status and their early language development. During fortnightly group meetings, parents learn a diverse curriculum that includes content on: 1) cognitive stimulation and play practices; 2) child nutrition and cooking practices; and 3) self-care for good mental health. This information and learning content is delivered by supervised community volunteers using an interactive theatre-based approach. In this study, the newly established maternity waiting homes (MWHs) and affiliated Safe Motherhood Action Group leaders (SMAGs) will be used as a novel platform to launch and support community-based parenting groups, embedding this program directly into the existing health system, and making them more feasible for scale-up and sustainability. Despite the positive impact of the proposed parenting-group model in the pilot trial, this model is not currently operating in Zambia. By integrating this intervention into the existing health system, large populations of rural children exposed to high levels of adversity in the critical early years of life could be reached in a nationally scalable fashion. As part of this project, the investigators propose to implement and rigorously assess the impact of this approach in four districts of Zambia.