Reducing Respiratory Virus Transmission in Bangladeshi Classrooms

March 28, 2025 updated by: Stephen P Luby, Stanford University
This study will test if affordable air cleaning devices (box fans with a filter attached and/or ultraviolet light lamps) installed in classrooms can reduce the number of viral respiratory illnesses schoolchildren experience.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This cluster-randomized controlled trial in Bangladesh schools will examine whether low-cost air filtration and/or human-safe ultraviolet germicidal light interventions can reduce the incidence of schoolchildren's respiratory viral infections. The main study objectives are:

  1. Pilot and optimize an intervention to filter classroom air.
  2. Pilot and optimize an intervention to treat classroom air with ultraviolet light.
  3. Assess the separate and combined effect of air filtration and ultraviolet light on the incidence of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) confirmed illness from respiratory viruses.

Methods: The study will take place in 60 government primary schools in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Within each enrolled school, 5 classrooms of students in grades 3, 4 and 5 will be randomly assigned to receive:

  1. Box fans with a filter attachment.
  2. 220 nanometer (nm) wavelength ultraviolet light air cleaner lamps.
  3. Both the box fans with a filter and the 220 nm ultraviolet lamps.
  4. No device: a control group that receives no additional device ("standard of care"). Two classrooms within each school will be assigned as controls.

Why does this matter?: Clarifying the impact of low-cost practical solutions could support the adoption of these strategies that could reduce influenza and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission in schools in order to reduce the burden of respiratory illness in these communities.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

20000

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 Contact

  • Name: Mahbubur Rahman
  • Phone Number: 4003 +88 02 2222 77 001-10
  • Email: Mahbubr@icddrb.org

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

  • Child

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Schoolchildren of Bangladesh Government-run primary schools in Dhaka, Bangladesh ages 9 - 12 years, of all gender identifiers (male, female, transgender, prefer not to designate), without specific ethnic selection amongst standard school children of Bangladesh government schools in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • School children of non-Bangladesh Government-run primary schools and/or schoolchildren who do not attend a Bangladesh Government-run primary school in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
  • School children who are not able to or have a contraindication with the ability to comply with study procedures.

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: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Box Fan
Classrooms receive box fans equipped with a filter.
Device: Box Fan
Classrooms assigned to this arm will be equipped with 2 - 8 box fans each with a single minimum efficiency reporting value-14 (MERV-14) filter sufficient to increase effective air changes per hour to 12 based on the clean air delivery rate measured in cubic feet per minute of the box fan + filter * 60 divided by the room volume.
Experimental: UV Germicidal Irradiation Lamp Unit
Classrooms receive UV germicidal irradiation lamp unit(s).
Device: UV Germicidal Irradiation Lamp Unit
Classrooms assigned to this arm will be equipped with one or two 222nm wavelength light ultraviolet germicidal irradiation lamp units (number of units per classroom based on room volume).
Experimental: Combined: Box Fan and UV Germicidal Irradiation Lamp Units
Classrooms receive box fans equipped with a filter and UV germicidal irradiation lamp unit(s).
Device: Combined: Box Fan and UV Germicidal Irradiation Lamp Units
Classrooms assigned to this arm will be equipped with both box fans and UV germicidal irradiation lamp units.
No Intervention: Non-Interventional Control
Classrooms receive no intervention to their standard classroom setup.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Total number of symptomatic respiratory illness episodes due to either Influenza or SARS- CoV-2
Time Frame: Over 40 weeks of observation
Study personnel will visit each school twice weekly. They will identify any students within the study classrooms who were absent or who have symptoms consistent with the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of influenza like illness. For children who were absent or who have symptoms, study personnel will visit the child's home, and if the student's parent provides informed consent, collect more detailed information on signs and symptoms, and a throat swab from the child. The throat swab will be placed on viral transport media, placed on ice and transported to the One Health Laboratory at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). One aliquot from the specimen will be analyzed for Influenza A, Influenza B, and SARS-CoV-2. In the laboratory, nucleic acid in the throat swab specimen will be extracted and one-step real-time (RT)-PCR conducted to assess the presence of RNA from Influenza A, Influenza B or SARS-CoV-2.
Over 40 weeks of observation

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Total number of symptomatic influenza-like illness episodes
Time Frame: Over 40 weeks of observation
Study personnel will visit each school twice weekly. They will identify any students within the study classrooms who were absent or who have symptoms consistent with the WHO definition of influenza like illness.
Over 40 weeks of observation
Total number of symptomatic influenza episodes
Time Frame: Over 40 weeks of observation
Study personnel will visit each school twice weekly. They will identify any students within the study classrooms who were absent or who have symptoms consistent with the WHO definition of influenza like illness. For children who were absent or who have symptoms, study personnel will visit the child's home, and if the student's parent provides informed consent, collect more detailed information on signs and symptoms, and a throat swab from the child. The throat swab will be placed on viral transport media, placed on ice and transported to the One Health Laboratory at icddr,b. One aliquot from the specimen will be analyzed for Influenza A or Influenza B. In the laboratory, nucleic acid in the throat swab specimen will be extracted and one-step real-time RT-PCR conducted to assess the presence of RNA from Influenza A or Influenza B.
Over 40 weeks of observation
Total number of symptomatic SARS-CoV2 episodes
Time Frame: Over 40 weeks of observation
Study personnel will visit each school twice weekly. They will identify any students within the study classrooms who were absent or who have symptoms consistent with the WHO definition of influenza like illness. For children who were absent or who have symptoms, study personnel will visit the child's home, and if the student's parent provides informed consent, collect more detailed information on signs and symptoms, and a throat swab from the child. The throat swab will be placed on viral transport media, placed on ice and transported to the One Health Laboratory at icddr,b. One aliquot from the specimen will be analyzed for SARS-CoV2. In the laboratory, nucleic acid in the throat swab specimen will be extracted and one-step real-time RT-PCR conducted to assess the presence of RNA from SARS-CoV2.
Over 40 weeks of observation
Total number of student absentee episodes
Time Frame: Over 40 weeks of observation
Study personnel will visit each school twice weekly. They will identify any students within the study classrooms who were absent.
Over 40 weeks of observation

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Stanford University

Collaborators

International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Stephen P Luby, MD, Stanford 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 (Estimated)

October 1, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

September 1, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

January 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 30, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 30, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

February 7, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 2, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 28, 2025

Last Verified

March 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 73657

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

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.

Clinical Trials on SARS-CoV2 Infection

Clinical Trials on Box Fan

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Mauritius

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

Subscribe