An observational study in Leprosy, sponsored by Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium. Completed at 1 site in Comoros. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2021-05-11.
Sponsored by Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium · Observational
Despite decades of a solid leprosy control program, including active case finding and follow-up on therapeutic outcome, the Comoros islands of Anjouan and Moheli continue to be hyperendemic for leprosy, with leprosy case notifications far exceeding those for tuberculosis, while the third island, Grande Comore, presents few cases. The high proportion (31% in 2015) of disease in children indicates that recent transmission is a major driver of the persistent endemicity, and that present control measures are not sufficient. The low proportion (2.6% average in last 10 years) of grade II disabilities in newly diagnosed cases indicates that case detection is early.
The main objective of the present proposal is to identify which persons would most benefit from prophylactic treatment. The secondary objective is to unravel human, bacterial and environmental risk factors for transmission of and progression to leprosy disease, with the ultimate goal to reduce the leprosy incidence.. The program has remaining expertise to re-establish laboratory confirmation of leprosy patients, allowing to optimize and validate molecular genotyping techniques to complement conventional epidemiological investigations in a 3-year prospective cohort of leprosy patients and their close contacts, aiming to identify transmission links. A third objective is to document diagnostic delays in more detail
As the leprosy control programme has initiated a pilot study on rifampicin prophylaxis in four villages on Anjouan in 2015, a prospective cohort study will permit measuring the leprosy incidence in close contacts as well as those in neighboring houses, who did or did not receive rifampicin prophylaxis.
The expected outcome of this project will be to identify risk factors for leprosy transmission. Specifically, we expect to identify those contacts at highest risk of developing leprosy disease, who would most benefit from rifampicin prophylaxis or other preventive measures.
52 studies on the registry are indexed under Leprosy; 13 are open to participants now.
Browse Leprosy studies →Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium is the lead sponsor of 104 studies on the registry; 21 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
The Comoros islands, located between Madagascar and Mozambique, continue to be hyperendemic for leprosy. Periodic active case finding across the entire island of Anjouan is in place, resulting in early case detection, and every patient identified is being treated with highly effective multi drug therapy. Nevertheless, the high proportion of leprosy in children (31% were \<15y old in 2015) in combination with a low relapse rate (\<2%) indicate transmission continues unabated. The majority of the patients in Anjouan are paucibacillary.
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.
Exclusion Criteria:
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.
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.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Leprosy incidence among contacts of an index patient
Incidence rate ratios among the contacts by proximity to the index patients will be calculated. Classification of contacts in proximity groups is a dynamic process. Persons belonging to the same household, surrounding households, entire village, or entire island may shift to closer proximity groups when leprosy patients are diagnosed in their environment. Since date of diagnosis, and any recent migration, will be recorded for each patient, we will be able to reallocate contacts to other circles and attribute to each contact a period of exposure within each circle.
Time frame: The incidence rate ratio will be recorded during the 3-year recruitment period op the study.
Recent transmission cluster
Transmission links will be defined as identical genotypes based on their "variable number of tandem repeat(VNTR)"- profile. The definition of clustering will be based on comparison of the copy number of the VNTRs using two different stringencies: either considering those that presented identical copy number for all 17 alleles, or considering those that had identical copy number excluding the most variable loci.
Time frame: All the samples over the three years should be analysed the able to fully explore the transmission links. Therefore, this outcome will be assessed through study completion, which will probably take1 year.
Patient and health system delay.
Mean patient and health systems delay with 95% confidence interval will be calculated. The questionnaire will comprise questions on the duration of the symptoms and the health seeking behavior of the patient.
Time frame: This outcome can be calculated at the end of the recruitment phase of the study.Therefore, this outcome will be assessed through study completion, which will probably take1 year.
Plan to share: Undecided — Data sharing will be considered once the datasets are locked at time of publication.
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Ran from Apr 2017 to primary completion in Dec 2020, 44 months.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is completed, as verified in May 2021. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium →