Science Spotlight
February 14, 2018
This is a summary of the following peer-reviewed, scientific article:
Comparative Evaluation of Immunoassays to Improve Access to Diagnosis for Chagas Disease in Colombia.
To support its R&D activities on Chagas disease, DNDi launched the Chagas Clinical Research Platform (CCRP). The platform brings together partners, experts, and stakeholders to provide support for evaluation and development of new treatments for Chagas disease. The patient-centred platform aims to f...acilitate clinical research, provide a forum for technical discussions, develop a critical mass of expertise, and strengthen institutional research capacities. In addition, it identifies and reviews priority needs, works towards standardization of methodology to assess drug efficacy and reviews alternatives for using current approved drugs (new schemes, doses, combination) and special scenarios (resistance).
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Chagas is a parasitic disease that affects over 6 million people in the
world. As the disease typically remains asymptomatic for years, new cases
often go unnoticed and unreported, and most people with the disease
are unaware of their condition. Less than 10% of people affected are
diagnosed and... the vast majority do not receive the treatment they need.
If not treated, Chagas may cause irreversible, life-threatening damage to
the heart and other vital organs.
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At the forefront of DNDi’s efforts to develop new treatments is the need to understand the realities and treatment needs of patients and health care staff in the field. The ultimate goal for human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) is a truly simplified
treatment which can be orally administered, impl...emented at the primary health care level, and effective against both stages of the disease.
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DNDi’s long-term goal for sleeping sickness, also known as human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), is to develop and register two new drugs that are effective against both Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the disease and both subspecies of the parasite, T.b. gambiense and T.b. rhodesiense. T.b. rhodesiense is ...an acute form of the disease, occurring primarily in Eastern and Southern Africa. Better treatments for T.b. rhodesiense sleeping sickness are urgently needed.
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DNDi is now striving to make fexinidazole available to the majority of people who have T.b. gambiense sleeping sickness. We are supporting a three-year access and pharmacovigilance study that began in 2020 and have so far carried out in-country training of relevant staff in 250 hospitals and... health centres in T.b. gambiense-endemic countries; and updated national treatment and pharmacovigilance guidelines in Angola, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, and Chad.
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La enfermedad de Chagas es parasitaria y afecta a más de 6 millones
de personas en el mundo. Como normalmente es asintomática durante
años, los nuevos casos suelen no detectarse ni reportarse y la mayoría
de las personas con la enfermedad no tiene conciencia de su condición.
Se diagnostica ...a menos del 10% de las personas afectadas, y en su gran
mayoría estas no reciben el tratamiento que necesitan. Sin tratamiento,
la enfermedad de Chagas puede causar daños irreversibles al corazón y
otros órganos vitales, o la muerte.
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Full Perscribing information on Fexinidazole Tablet for oral use
INDICATIONS AND USAGE
Fexinidazole Tablets are indicated for the treatment of both the first-stage (hemolymphatic) and second-stage (meningoencephalitic) human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) due to Trypanosoma brucei gambiense in pati...ents 6 years of age and older and weighing at least 20 kg.
Limitations of Use
Due to the decreased efficacy observed in patients with severe second stage HAT (cerebrospinal fluid white blood cell count (CSF-WBC) >100 cells/μL) due to T. brucei gambiense disease, Fexinidazole Tablets should only be used in these patients if there are no other available treatment options [see Warnings and Precautions (5.1)]
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Leishmaniasis is a climate-sensitive disease. Changes in
temperature, rainfall, and humidity can have strong impacts on
the sandfly vector, altering their distribution and influencing their
survival and population sizes. Increased temperatures shorten
vector development time, reduce Leishmania p...arasite incubation
time, and increase vector biting rates, allowing transmission
in areas not previously endemic for the disease. Poor and
marginalized communities will be hit disproportionately harder by
the effects of climate change, and droughts, famines, and floods
can also lead to displacement and migration of immunologically
naive people to areas where leishmaniasis is endemic, posing a
threat of leishmaniasis outbreaks.
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La leishmaniasis es una enfermedad tropical desatendida sensible
al clima, trasmitida por la picadura de insectos flebótomos y
se calcula que amenaza a mil millones de personas en todo el mundo.
Esta enfermedad altamente compleja se presenta de varias formas
clínicas, causadas por 20 especies ...del parásito Leishmania.
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Mycetoma is a slow-growing bacterial or fungal infection, most often of the foot, that may spread to other parts of the body and can cause severe deformity. It is a debilitating disease that most often affects poor people in rural areas with limited access to health care.
Visceral leishmaniasis, the most severe form of leishmaniasis also known as kala-azar, is a life-threatening disease caused by Leishmania parasites which are transmitted by female sandflies. Visceral leishmaniasis causes fever, weight loss, spleen and liver enlargement, and, if not treated, death. P...eople with both visceral leishmaniasis and HIV are particularly difficult to cure.
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Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a painful disease that exerts a serious toll on societies around the world that are afflicted by it. Although not life-threatening, the skin ulcers and scars it causes can lead to isolation and psychosocial pathologies due to social stigma, and its occurrence is often asso...ciated with regional conflicts.
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1 billion people are at risk of infection with leishmaniasis, a neglected disease strongly linked to poverty. There’s no single, simple cure: current treatments are complex and need to be adapted to the form of the disease and geographical region.
Leishmaniasis is among the most neglected diseases. The most common form is cutaneous leishmaniasis that forms lesions on the skin.
The only treatment available for cutaneous leishmaniasis is highly toxic. In some cases, patients have died because of the treatment, even though cutaneous leishmania...sis is not fatal.
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Website last accessed on 14.04.2023
Health workers Luke (Kenya), Juliana (Colombia), and Shishu (India) share the same hope for their patients with leishmaniasis: simple, oral treatments. For the first time ever, it seems leishmaniasis research is moving from neglect to a sense of hope.
Website last accessed on 22.05.2023
The LEAP platform aims to strengthen clinical research capacity, which is lacking in part due to the remoteness and geographic spread of the patients, most of whom live in the most impoverished regions of Africa.