A Community Trial for Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL)

November 12, 2012 updated by: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh

A Randomized, Double Blind, Community Trial to Assess the Efficacy of a Combination of Anti-helminth, and Vitamin A, Zinc and Iron Supplementation in Preventing Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) Disease Among Asymptomatic Individuals With VL

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) / Kala-azar (KA) is a public health problem in the many countries in the world including Bangladesh. Where more than 90,000 VL cases have been reported since 1994. The disease is fatal if not treated. Even with treatment the mortality rate is high (10%). VL is a vector-borne disease, caused by the parasite Leishmania donovani (LD) and is transmitted by female sandfly sp. Phlebotomus argentipes. Not all people exposed to the LD parasite develop disease. According to our observation only about 30% of the infected with LD parasite develop disease within one year of diagnosis. Malnutrition and intestinal helminth infection have been found to be associated with the risk of active VL. Down regulation of Th1 cellular immune response confers susceptibility to active VL. Both malnutrition and intestinal helminth infection down regulate the Th1 cellular immune response. Till now there is no established prophylaxis against active VL among the people exposed to the LD infection. Many studies including ours have been shown that periodic regular deworming reduced malnutrition significantly. Micronutrient such as zinc and iron as well vitamin A supplementation also improve malnutrition and may enhance Th1 cellular immune response. Thus we hypothesize that periodic deworming and. micronutrient and vitamin A supplementation together may reduce the risk of active VL among the people exposed to the LD infection.

The study will be carried out in the Harirampur union, Trishal, Mymensingh. This area is highly endemic for VL. Two hundred asymptomatic VL patients aged 2-60 will be enrolled to the study. Children aged less than 2 years, pregnant women, active VL case, person with chronic disease, disable individuals and those who will refuse written consent will not be enrolled to the study. After enrollment subjects will be divided into two groups through randomization. One group will receive deworming and nutritional supplement (intervention group) and other group will receive placebo (placebo group). Two groups will be followed for 12 months through active surveillance for developing of active VL. In addition morbidity data, monthly stool sampling, monthly anthropometry, urine and blood sampling at baseline, before and after treatment of active VL will be carried out Successful completion of the study and derived results from it will provide useful information that whether periodic deworming with micronutrient and vitamin A supplementation can reduce the risk of active VL among the people exposed to the LD infection.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

200

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Bangladesh
      • Dhaka, Bangladesh, 1212
        • International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

2 years to 60 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • An individual with positive rK39 strip test, without past history of VL and/or symptom and sign of chronic illness.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Children aged < 2 years,
  • Adults aged > 60 years,
  • Patients of active VL,
  • Pregnant women,
  • People with chronic or debilitating conditions.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Quadruple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention group
Drug: Albendazole, Iron, Zinc and Vitamin A
single oral dose of 200,000 IU Vitamin A at baseline and after six months, 35 mg and 65 oral elemental iron for subject aged <5 and >=5 years respectively everyday for two months starting from enrollment; 10 mg oral zinc for 10 consecutive days each month for 6 months; and a single 400 mg oral dose of albendazole at 3-months' intervals.
Placebo Comparator: Non-intervention group
Non-intervention group will receive placebo following the same schedule as intervention group.
Other: Placebo
Placebo

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
To assess the effect of deworming and supplementation with iron, zinc and vitamin A on incidence of active VL among the individuals with asymptomatic VL.
Time Frame: 12 months
12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
To investigate the prevalence of asymptomatic and symptomatic VL among the households with a past case of VL. To measure the parasite load in the blood by Real Time PCR and to study the association of blood parasite load with active VL.
Time Frame: 12 months
12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh

Collaborators

IDRI
Nagasaki University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

October 1, 2009

Primary Completion (Actual)

October 1, 2010

Study Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2010

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 14, 2010

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 16, 2010

First Posted (Estimate)

February 17, 2010

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

November 14, 2012

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 12, 2012

Last Verified

January 1, 2010

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • PR-09018

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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