View clinical trials related to Respiratory Infections.
Filter by:Acute respiratory infections are the leading cause of hospitalization in premature infants worldwide. Severity rates are particularly high in developing countries. Numerous viruses can cause severe disease, but the most frequent agent of hospitalization is respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). In a recent study in Argentina, 58% of RSV infected VLBW infants required hospitalization and 19% required mechanical ventilation. One every twenty infected infants died. Unlike industrialized nations, VLBW infants in developing countries often lack access to prophylaxis against RSV with a commercially available monoclonal antibody (palivizumab). No vaccine or preventive intervention is available against any respiratory virus for infants younger than 6 months of age in developing countries and the public sector of most middle-income countries. The protective role of breastfeeding against respiratory infections in developing countries is well established. But while similar beneficial effects have been described for premature infants, the dropout rate for breastfeeding in families exposed to the uncertainties and stress of the early months of life in the neonatal intensive care unit is very high. The World Health Organization recommends the use of Human Milk Donor Banks to feed infants that cannot be breastfed by their own mothers. These banks are established with the purpose of collecting, screening, processing (including pasteurizing), testing and distributing donated human milk. The potential benefit of donated milk against acute disease elicited by RSV is unknown. The investigators propose to study the role of supplemental donated human milk in the prevention of hospitalizations caused by RSV in non-breastfeeding premature infants. Since the investigators expect the benefits of breast milk to extend beyond protection against RSV, the effect of human milk against respiratory infections elicited by other viruses will also be evaluated.
General:Prospective, randomized, double blind controlled trial of the food supplement GOLDTRAIN PLUS, to assess its safety and efficacy in comparison to placebo in subjects with upper respiratory infection. Hypothesis: The food supplement GOLDTRAIN PLUS will be superior to placebo in shortening the time to recovery from the disease symptoms. Study design and outcome measures:Study population of 182 generally healthy subjects with acute respiratory infection randomized in 1:1 ratio to active supplement versus placebo treatment, with randomization stratified by site. The study supplement administration will be continued for 7 days, and patient global assessment (PGA) will be the main primary measurement tool, based on a self-reporting questionnaire filled and monitored every 12 hours for 7 consecutive days. Throat and nasal swabs determining type of viral infection, will be taken at inclusion of patient and a number of blood tests at the end of treatment to look for any adverse effects of the medication. Analysis and conclusion: All data-from the filled questionnaires, clinical follow up and laboratory studies will be analyzed by multivariate analysis to determine the efficacy of the supplement and its correlation to the clinical and laboratory parameters.
This study will evaluate how the immune system responds to influenza infection and compare how the infection differs in patients with a weakened immune system versus those with a healthy immune system. Patients at the NIH Clinical Center who are older than 2 years of age and who are diagnosed with influenza A or B may be eligible for this study. Patients with healthy immune systems and weakened immune systems are included. Participants answer questions about how they are feeling and have a physical examination to evaluate their symptoms. Blood and nasal fluid are collected on the first day and then every other day for a total of 8 days. Nasal fluid is collected by either inserting a small tube in the nose and washing the nose with salt water and collecting the fluid obtained, or by rubbing the inside of the nose with a swab. Physical examinations are repeated on the days that blood and nasal fluid are collected.
The objective of the trial is to assess the impact of a disinfection and hand hygiene program on absenteeism in elementary school classrooms. Students in intervention classrooms will use alcohol-based hand sanitizers at school, and their classrooms will be disinfected using quaternary ammonium wipes. We hypothesize that the use of disinfectants and hand hygiene products in elementary school classrooms will reduce absenteeism.
Vitamin A deficiency is an important health problem globally including Bangladesh. The problem is greater among under-five children, particularly in malnourished. Vitamin A supplementation reduces morbidity from diarrhoeal diseases and also prevents future diarrhoea episodes. However, there are conflicting reports on the role of vitamin A supplementation on morbidity from acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI) including pneumonia. In non-malnourished children supplementation has been reported to be associated with increased incidence and morbidity of ALRI. The WHO committee[1] has reviewed both the risk and benefit of mega dose (200,000 IU) vitamin A supplementation during acute illness particularly diarrhoea, irrespective of the nutritional status of under-5 children and recommended vitamin A supplementation in areas where vitamin A status is low. In Bangladesh mega dose (200,000 IU) of vitamin A is routinely supplemented to under-5 children every 6 months. Absorption of vitamin A precursors from the GI tract is reduced in severely malnourished children, who are also lacking in retinol binding protein (RBP), required for transportation of retinol to target tissues. Thus it is established that a significant portion of the supplemented vitamin A is excreted in feces and urine of malnourished children. The excretion of vitamin A increases substantially during acute infections including diarrhoeal diseases. On the other hand, due to reduced RBP, concentration of free vitamin A increases in the body resulting in the possibility of adverse events including "pseudotumor cerebri". It has recently been observed that low-dose daily supplementation of vitamin A to malnourished children produces a better effect on recovery from acute illness and also in preventing infectious diseases among under-five children. However, the limitations of those studies included a small sample size, delayed assessment of retinol after supplementation among the others. Thus WHO felt that the issue needs to be addressed in a well-designed clinical trial. We hope that our proposed study will enable us to compare the efficacy of low-dose daily administration of vitamin A with that of initial mega dose followed by daily low dose of vitamin A in malnourished children presenting with acute diarrhoeal diseases with or without ALRI. If the results of this study indicate that the daily low-dose has similar efficacy to that of the currently recommended mega dose followed by daily low-dose of vitamin A, would have important programmatic implications.
The primary objective of this study is to describe the incidence of RSV-associated LRI among infants <1 year of age presenting to the ED during selected shoulder months.
Purpose The emergence and rapid rise in antibiotic resistance among common bacteria are adversely affecting the clinical course and health care costs of community-acquired infections. Because antibiotic resistance rates are strongly correlated with antibiotic use patterns, multiple organizations have declared reductions in unnecessary antibiotic use to be critical components of efforts to combat antibiotic resistance. Among humans, the vast majority of unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions are used to treat acute respiratory tract infections (ARIs) that have a viral etiology. Although the rate of antibiotic prescribing for ARIs by office-based physicians in the US has decreased about 16% from its peak in 1997, the rate of antibiotic prescribing in acute care settings (eg, emergency departments and urgent care centers), which account for 1 in 5 ambulatory antibiotic prescriptions in the US, has shown only a modest decline (6%) during this period. Translation of lessons from intervention studies in office-based practices is needed to improve antibiotic use in acute care settings.