View clinical trials related to Febrile Illness.
Filter by:Highly subsidized first-line antimalarials (artemisinin combination therapy or ACT) are available over the counter in the private retail sector in most malaria-endemic countries. Overconsumption of ACTs purchased over the counter is rampant due to their low price, high perceived efficacy, and absence of diagnostic tools to guide drug use. The ultimate goal of the proposed work is to improve antimalarial stewardship in the retail sector, which is responsible for distributing the majority of antimalarials in sub-Saharan Africa. Through a combination of diagnosis and treatment subsidies and provider-directed incentives, this approach will align provider and customer incentives with appropriate case management and thereby improve health outcomes. The main objective of this study (Aim 2) is to test two key interventions in a random sample of private medicine retail outlets in Nigeria. This will be a cluster-randomized controlled trial where the cluster is a private retail outlet that stocks and sells WHO quality-assured ACTs. This two-arm study will test 1) a provider-directed incentive for testing and reporting in combination with a consumer-directed intervention in the form of a diagnosis-dependent ACT subsidy against 2) a comparison arm. Outlets in both arms will offer malaria diagnostic testing to customers who wish to purchase one. Information for the primary and secondary outcomes will be collected during exit interviews with eligible customers. The primary outcome will be the proportion of ACTs sold to customers with a positive diagnostic test. The main secondary outcome will be the proportion of suspected malaria cases presenting to the retail outlet that are tested. Other secondary outcomes include adherence to the RDT result amongst those tested (defined as taking a quality-assured ACT following a positive test and refraining from taking an ACT following a negative test) and appropriate case management for all suspected malaria cases (proportion tested and adhered among all suspected cases).
Highly subsidized first-line antimalarials (artemisinin combination therapy or ACT) are available over the counter in the private retail sector in most malaria-endemic countries. Overconsumption of ACTs purchased over the counter is rampant due to their low price, high perceived efficacy, and absence of diagnostic tools to guide drug use. The ultimate goal of the proposed work is to improve antimalarial stewardship in the retail sector, which is responsible for distributing the majority of antimalarials in sub-Saharan Africa. Through a combination of diagnosis and treatment subsidies and provider-directed incentives, this approach will align provider and customer incentives with appropriate case management and thereby improve health outcomes. The main objective of this study (Aim 2) is to test two key interventions in a random sample of private medicine retail outlets in Kenya. This will be a cluster-randomized controlled trial where the cluster is a private retail outlet that stocks and sells WHO quality-assured ACTs. This three-arm study will test 1) a consumer-directed intervention in the form of a diagnosis-dependent ACT subsidy, 2) both a provider-directed incentive for testing and a client-directed intervention in combination against 3) a comparison arm. Outlets in all three arms will offer malaria diagnostic testing to customers who wish to purchase one. Information for the primary and secondary outcomes will be collected during exit interviews with eligible customers. The primary outcome will be the proportion of ACTs sold to customers with a positive diagnostic test. The main secondary outcome will be the proportion of suspected malaria cases presenting to the retail outlet that are tested. Other secondary outcomes include adherence to the RDT result amongst those tested (defined as taking a quality-assured ACT following a positive test and refraining from taking an ACT following a negative test) and appropriate case management for all suspected malaria cases (proportion tested and adhered among all suspected cases).
Bloodstream infections are frequent in children admitted to the hospital for severe febrile illness in sub-Saharan Africa.Ongoing blood culture surveillance at Kisantu Hospital showed non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) as the first cause of bloodstream infections in children. Bloodstream infections have a high case fatality (15 - 20%). Outcome of bloodstream infections is dependent on timely diagnosis and treatment. However, observations at Kisantu Hospital showed that many children arrive late and die early after admission. By interviewing caregivers of severely ill children admitted to Kisantu Hospital, the investigators aim to study their health itinerary, i.e. the sequence of all actions of health care seeking and care provision between the onset of febrile illness and the admission at the hospital. The investigators aim to assess the health itinerary according to the "three delays" model. The three delays model studies delays and practices at the level of health care seeking, of transport and of start of antibiotic treatment.10 Visits to referring health centers will provide complementary information about diagnosis, treatment and referral practices. In hospital follow-up will allow to assess the outcome according to the duration of health itinerary. The results of routine laboratory tests upon hospital admission will allow to stratify the health itinerary according to fever etiology. The results of this study will allow to understand the duration of the health itinerary, its possible association with case-fatality, and factors explaining for delays at every level. This information is expected to orient local health policy makers towards interventions shortening the duration of the health itinerary and in that case improve and monitor the referral system. In addition, the study results are expected to orient towards further research to understand health seeking behavior (i.e. focus-group discussions and community-based studies).
The TESTsmART Trial consists of two main aims. The overall goal of the two aims is to investigate the impact of malaria rapid diagnostic test (mRDT) subsidies and conditional artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) subsidies on the testing and treatment behavior of participants seeking care for their febrile illness in the private retail sector. Conditional ACT subsidies are discounts on quality-assured ACTs which are linked to the results of a malaria rapid diagnostic test administered at the retail outlet; only participants with a positive test will have access to an additional discount on a quality-assured ACT. The main objective of Aim 1 of this study is to identify a combination of conditional ACT and RDT subsidies that maximizes the proportion of participants that choose to have a malaria diagnostic test before taking a drug. The investigators will test two levels of conditional ACT subsidy (100% subsidy versus ~67% subsidy) and two levels of RDT subsidy (0% subsidy and 50% subsidy) in a factorial designed experiment. Because dose size and therefore the price of an ACT course are dependent upon patient age, the ACT subsidy amount will also be scaled with patient age. These subsidy levels were chosen to keep the estimated program cost of the combined subsidy within $0.30-0.60 USD per person (assuming 100% testing uptake and between 20-40% of participants having a positive RDT). These estimates represent an upper bound since testing is unlikely to reach 100%. Current subsidy levels for ACT costs the program between 1.30-2.50 USD per treatment, with more than a third of that investment spent on individuals without malaria. Individuals presenting to a retail outlet for a treatment of a fever or suspected malaria illness will be randomized to one of the four groups in equal proportions. A total of 840 participants will be enrolled (210 per arm). Their choices concerning uptake of testing and drug purchase will be recorded. The main outcome will be the proportion of participants that choose to take a test. Secondary outcomes include the proportion of participants who adhered to the results of the RDT among those who were tested (used ACT when positive and did not use an ACT when negative or without a test). The results of this study will be used to inform the subsidy levels in the intervention for Aim 2 of this trial.
The purpose of this pilot study is to improve inpatient monitoring of severely-ill children admitted to the hospital in low resource settings at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. Given the high ratio of patients to medical staff in these settings, the lack of reliable patient monitoring tools, and the high rate of early inpatient mortality, we will prospectively train parents as monitoring aids of their hospitalized children. Early recognition and intervention in critical illness is important to avoid (further) organ failure. Parents will be taught how to assess their child's mental status, work of breathing and capillary refill time which will inform a 3-point severity of illness scale. The severity of illness will be conveyed by the parents to the medical staff via color-coded flag system. The goal is to increase the healthcare provider patient reassessment rate according to patients' level of severity to assist in early recognition and treatment of patients' deterioration.
Compare and assess the accuracy and reliability of the InstaTemp MD® device to techniques presently in use for measuring temperature in infants and children in a Canadian clinical setting.
To assess the suitability and user-friendliness of an information leaflet for parents on management of fever and febrile illness in children. The purpose of the leaflet is to provide evidence-based information for parents regarding fever and febrile illness in children.
HYPOTHESES: 1. That infants receiving PHiD-CV10 as a booster at 12 months of age, compared to controls having no PHiD-CV10 booster (i.e. standard PCV13), will have higher HiD antibody levels, lower carriage of NTHi, and less tympanic membrane perforation at 18 and 36 months of age. 2. That infants receiving PCV13 as a booster at 12 months of age, compared to controls having no PCV13 (i.e. PHiD-CV10 booster) will have higher antibody levels to serotypes 3, 6A and 19A, less carriage of these serotypes, and less tympanic membrane perforation at 18 and 36 months of age.
30 patients acute hospitalized to medical ward and their medication records are examined. It is to be recorded how the investigators find information about medicine use by the reception when they do not follow the patient. The record of the changes made during hospital stay is examined, whether they are justified in the discharge summaries and whether they are described in the medical list. After a month is to find out if the GP has recorded or possibly rejected changes to medication made in hospital.
Malaria remains a disease that causes much death and sickness, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. An accurate, simple, and inexpensive method of diagnosing malaria is urgently needed. The purpose of this study is to evaluate a different diagnostic method compared to those most frequently used. The study may also identify the factors causing false positive and false negative results using the alternative method. Participants will be 600 Ugandan children aged 1-10 years who are enrolled in protocol 04-068. Those who develop a fever over the 12 month duration of the study will be tested for malaria by both the standard and the new methods. These tests will require a few drops of blood to be collected by finger prick. Subjects will be treated on the basis of standard diagnostic testing (i.e. expert microscopy).