The Infectious Disease Epidemiology Research Group (IDERG) at the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) has secured support for the FACT Project, a research initiative aimed at developing an innovative combination treatment for severely ill children.
The project, titled “FACT: Triple therapy for severe malaria and bacterial co-infections,” addresses an important challenge in the care of severely ill children in malaria-endemic countries: malaria and bacterial bloodstream infections can cause similar symptoms, making it difficult to determine whether malaria is the only cause of a child’s severe illness or whether a bacterial infection is also present. Even when malaria infection is confirmed, a concurrent bacterial bloodstream infection may go undetected. The World Health Organization recommends that children with suspected severe malaria receive injectable artesunate together with antibiotics to cover possible bacterial infections.
The project aims to evaluate a new triple-drug combination that could address both potentially life-threatening conditions at the same time. FACT aims to close this gap in the management of severely ill children, while also exploring a strategy that could help address drug resistance and reduce the time children need to remain in hospital.
The project is supported by Global Health EDCTP3 and its members and forms part of the Global Health EDCTP3 Joint Undertaking under grant number 101248797-FACT, co-funded by the European Union.
“KCCR is pleased to contribute its clinical and laboratory expertise to FACT. Through our work to strengthen and harmonies laboratory capacity across the participating sites, while contributing to the evaluation of the new treatment combination in Ghana, we aim to help generate robust evidence on an approach that could address two major threats to severely ill children at the same time: severe malaria and bacterial bloodstream infections.”
Dr Oumou Maïga-Ascofaré, Group Lead of the Infectious Disease Epidemiology Research Group at KCCR,
SCIENTIFIC LEADERSHIP
- Centre de Recherches Medicales de Lambaréné (CERMEL), Gabon
PARTNER INSTITUTIONS
- Eberhard Karls Universitaet Tübingen (UT), Germany
- Universitatsklinikum Heidelberg (UKHD), Germany
- Fondation Congolaise pour la Recherche Medicale (FCRM), Republic of the Congo
- Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KNUST/KCCR), Ghana
- University of Hamburg (UHAM), Germany
- Medizinische Universitaet Wien (MUW), Austria
- Addis Ababa University (AAU), Ethiopia
- Eurice European Research and Project Office GMBH, Germany
- DMG Deutsche Malaria GmbH, Germany
KCCR is proud to contribute to this international effort to generate evidence that could help improve outcomes for children affected by severe malaria and bacterial bloodstream infections.
Disclaimer
Funded by the European Union under Global Health EDCTP3. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of Global Health EDCTP3 nor its members. Neither of the parties can be held responsible for them.
More information
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101248797
https://www.global-health-edctp3.europa.eu/projects/fact_en?prefLang=fr
