Descripción del proyecto
Interrumpir la transmisión de la tripanosomiasis humana africana gambiana
La tripanosomiasis humana africana gambiana (gHAT, por sus siglas en inglés) es una enfermedad tropical desatendida causada por parásitos tripanosomas. Si no se trata, la gHAT es casi siempre mortal. Las opciones de tratamiento son limitadas y han sido tóxicas durante mucho tiempo, lo cual ha dado lugar a complejos procedimientos de diagnóstico. Como consecuencia, muchos pacientes (hasta el 50 %) no reciben la atención que necesitan. En este contexto, el proyecto STROGHAT, financiado con fondos europeos, evaluará un nuevo método de «cribado y tratamiento» utilizando acoziborole, un medicamento oral seguro de dosis única que ha demostrado una eficacia del 98,1 % en ensayos recientes. La estrategia simplificará los procedimientos de diagnóstico y hará más accesible el tratamiento en la región foco del norte de Équateur (Congo), contribuyendo al objetivo de eliminar la transmisión de gHAT para 2030.
Objetivo
Gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (gHAT) is a neglected tropical disease caused by trypanosome parasites. gHAT is fatal if left untreated. So far, treatment options for gHAT were limited and toxic, forcing control programs to avoid overtreatment through complex diagnostic procedures, including screening with a serological test, laborious microscopic confirmation of seropositives and lumbar puncture for disease stage determination. This resulted in loss of up to 50% of gHAT cases, which remained untreated. Recently a non-toxic single dose oral drug, acoziborole, has shown 98.1% efficacy in a phase III trial, irrespective of gHAT disease stage. Acoziborole removes the need for lumbar puncture and appears safe enough to treat serological suspects without microscopic confirmation (Screen & treat). The STROGHAT project 1° will evaluate effectiveness of a Screen & treat approach to rapidly reduce gHAT prevalence in an entire focus; 2° will extend acoziborole safety documentation; 3° and will analyze costs of this new approach. To achieve these objectives, Screen & treat will be implemented, actively and passively, for 3 consecutive years in the gHAT focus of Nord Equateur in D.R. Congo. Available geographical information will be exploited to specifically target villages where gHAT was recently, or still is present. Detection at a reference laboratory, of the trypanosomes nucleic acids in blood collected before treatment, will retrospectively identify true gHAT cases among the treated serological suspects. After 3 years of intervention, the gHAT prevalence in the focus will be re-estimated. STROGHAT intends to provide the first evidence for recommending Screen & treat to national HAT control programs for elimination of gHAT. Through facilitated diagnosis, increased acceptability and access to treatment, STROGHAT will contribute to achieving the goal of stopping gHAT transmission by 2030, as defined by the World Health Organization.
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
- HORIZON.2.1 - Health Main Programme
Convocatoria de propuestas
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaRégimen de financiación
HORIZON-JU-RIA - HORIZON JU Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinador
2000 ANTWERPEN
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