ClinicalTrials.gg
WithdrawnNCT03261596Updated Nov 17, 2017

Mebendazole Study Against Hookworm Infections in Children and Adolescents in Ghana

A Phase 4 interventional study of Mebendazole in Hookworm Infections, sponsored by PATH. Withdrawn at 1 site in Ghana. Open to participants aged 6 Years to 18 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2017-11-17.

Sponsored by PATH · Phase 4, Interventional, and Treatment

Why this study was withdrawn
In light of new evidence, the decision was made by the sponsor to not proceed.
Phase
Phase 4
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
0
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
6 Years to 18 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The Ghana study will hypothesize that both the multiple dose and single dose of mebendazole will achieve effective cure rates against hookworm among children and adolescents. This study is intended to be a pilot study for a planned Phase 3 registration trial of a new drug for hookworm, tribendimidine.

Read the detailed description

This study will determine the Cure Rates (CRs) of mebendazole regimens to be used as comparator drug regimens in the future pivotal trial of tribendimidine and will provide evidence of the efficacy and safety of mebendazole among children and adolescents infected with hookworm in Ghana. Children and adolescents bear a large burden of morbidity from hookworm infection, so building the evidence base for effective treatments in this population has important public health implications in Ghana and other endemic settings.

02

Conditions studied

  • Hookworm Infections

Keywords

  • Soil-transmitted helminth
  • hookworm
  • hookworm infections
  • necator americanus
  • ancylostoma duodenale
03

In context

Hookworm Infections

39 studies on the registry are indexed under Hookworm Infections; 5 are open to participants now.

Browse Hookworm Infections studies →

Lead sponsor

PATH is the lead sponsor of 113 studies on the registry; 7 are open to participants now.

Of its 10 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 10 (100%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
6 Years to 18 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

All participants must meet all of the following inclusion criteria:

  1. Male or female, aged 6 to 18 years, inclusive, at the time of randomization.
  2. Written signed by at least one parent and/or legally acceptable representative (as defined by local law); and assent by participant.
  3. Able and willing to be examined by a study health care provider at the beginning of the study.
  4. Able and willing to provide one stool sample at the beginning (baseline) and one sample approximately three weeks after treatment (follow-up).
  5. Positive for hookworm eggs in the stool (two Kato-Katz thick smear slides with more than one hookworm egg) at baseline.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria

Participants must meet none of the following exclusion criteria to be eligible for this study:

  1. Presence of major systemic illnesses as assessed by a study health care provider, upon initial targeted clinical assessment.
  2. Pregnancy, based on a positive urine rapid test, or breastfeeding in girls after menarche.
  3. Recent use of an anthelminthic drug (within the past 4 weeks) or use of anthelminthics not provided by study staff during the study period.
  4. Known allergy to mebendazole or albendazole.
  5. Participation in other clinical trials during the study.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(1)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 4
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Participant)
Enrollment
0 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    100 mg solid tablets 2x/day for 3 days

    Assess the efficacy (Cure Rate/CR) and safety of 100 mg dose regimen of mebendazole in children aged 6 to 18 years, inclusive, infected with hookworm.

    Drug: Mebendazole

  • Experimental
    Single dose 500 mg solid tablets

    Assess the efficacy (Cure Rate/CR) and safety of 500 mg dose regimen of mebendazole in children aged 6 to 18 years, inclusive, infected with hookworm.

    Drug: Mebendazole

Interventions

  • Participants will be randomized using a 1:1 ratio to one of the two arms. Study participants eligible for treatment will be randomly assigned to one of the two treatment arms using a computer-generated stratified block randomization code.

    Also known as: Vermox

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Cure Rate (CR) against hookworm, as determined by Kato Katz.

    To determine point estimates for the efficacy of two mebendazole regimens: (i) 100 mg solid tablets twice daily for three days, and (ii) single dose of 500 mg solid tablets in participants aged 6 to 18 years infected with hookworm. The CR will be calculated as the percentage of children and adolescents (all hookworm egg-positive at enrollment) who are egg negative 20 days after treatment. The CRs will be tabulated by mebendazole dose regimen received, along with their corresponding 95% CIs.

    Time frame: 20 days

Secondary outcomes

  1. Egg reduction rate (ERR), based on geometric mean, against hookworm

    In a simple analysis, the study will estimate a risk ratio between CRs by using log binomial regression. Baseline characteristics will be assessed by arm to determine any imbalance between the two randomization arms. Any factor (e.g., age, sex, school, weight, height, baseline hookworm infection intensity) out of balance at baseline will be adjusted for in the analyses. Sensitivity analyses will be conducted which will consider all participants with missing endpoint data as treatment failure or all as treatment success to test whether the results (of the CR comparison) are sensitive to potential differences in loss to follow-up.

    Time frame: 20 days

  2. CR and ERR against Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura

    Determine the ERR in the two treatment arms; EPG will be assessed by adding up the egg counts from the Kato-Katz thick smears and multiplying this number by twenty-four. The ERR will be calculated (ERR = (1-(mean egg count at follow-up/mean egg count at baseline))\*100). Geometric mean egg counts will be calculated for the different treatment arms before and after treatment to assess the corresponding ERRs. The bootstrap resampling method with 5,000 replicates will be used to calculate 95% CIs for ERRs and the difference between the ERRs. Analyses of mebendazole efficacy against concomitant STHs will proceed similarly to those conducted for hookworm.

    Time frame: 20 days

  3. Adverse Events

    For the safety objective, the probability of observing zero, one or more, and two or more solicited AEs among the 150 subjects in each treatment arm given a true event rate. For example, if the true rate of an AE among subjects receiving single dose mebendazole is 1% then the probability we will see 1 or more subjects with this event is 78%.

    Time frame: Through 20 days of follow-up

Other outcomes

  1. Sensitivity of Kato-Katz and PCR for hookworm infection detection

    Compare the sensitivity of Kato-Katz to quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays among participants at day 20 of follow-up. As there is no true gold standard for hookworm diagnosis, we will consider individuals as "true" positives if they are identified as positive by PCR or Kato-Katz. This assumes no false positives for either diagnostic technique. While PCR has higher sensitivity than microscopy in general, microscopy has been noted to have high specificity. The study will therefore avoid discounting as "true" positives those who test negative by PCR but positive by microscopy and conduct an inter-method reliability study to separately compare hookworm and other STH diagnoses by PCR or the pooled microscopy in the full sample (N= 300) with the pooled (Kato-Katz or PCR positive) gold standard. Specificity cannot be calculated, as both diagnostic methods are contained within the pooled gold standard.

    Time frame: Up to 14 weeks following Day 20

  2. Prevalence of hookworm genetic resistance markers

    Determine the prevalence of hookworm genetic resistance markers among participants at day 20 of follow-up. The conditional prevalence is defined as the proportion of individuals who have a disease subtype among those who test positive for the disease. All participants identified as positive for hookworm by PCR at day 20 will be considered hookworm positive.

    Time frame: Up to 14 weeks following Day 20

  3. Distribution of hookworm species among participants

    Determine the distribution of hookworm species among participants at baseline. All participants identified as positive for hookworm by PCR at baseline will be considered hookworm positive. The conditional prevalence(s) will be calculated as follows, pooled and separately for each arm.

    Time frame: Up to 14 weeks following Day 20

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research - University of Ghana
    Legon, Accra, Ghana
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided — The final results of this study will be published in a scientific journal and presented at scientific conferences. Any publication, lecture, and manuscripts of the findings of this study by any individual involved with the study will be governed by the procedure outlined in the Clinical Trial Agreement. Within any presentation or publication, confidentiality of individual subjects will be maintained, with identification by subject code number and initials, if applicable. A summary of study conclusions will be shared with the local community.

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Start is estimated for Sep 2017; primary completion for Dec 2017, 3 months later.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Aug 16, 2017
First posted
Aug 25, 2017
StartEst.
Sep 2017
Primary completionEst.
Dec 2017
CompletionEst.
Dec 2017
Last update
Nov 17, 2017
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Nov 17, 2017, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03261596
Lead sponsor
PATH
Collaborators
Yale University, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Ghana Health Services, HopeXchange Medical Center, Ghana, Kintampo Health Research Centre, Ghana
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Aug 25, 2017
Start date
Sep 2017 (estimated)
Primary completion
Dec 2017 (estimated)
Completion
Dec 2017 (estimated)
Last update
Nov 17, 2017

Study contacts

Michael Cappello, MD
principal investigator · Yale University
Michael Wilson, PhD
principal investigator · University of Ghana

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is withdrawn, as verified in Nov 2017. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Discussion

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Studies of the drug tested here: Mebendazole

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