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NIH Promoting Equity in Global Health Research - request for information

Tue, Jul 5, 2022 The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is requesting information on approaches to promote greater equity in global health research, particularly research that engages scientists in low and middle-income countries. This request for information (RFI) is intended to improve NIH’s understanding of potential research funding, priority setting, and administrative practices and strategies that could encourage or facilitate equitable global health research.
 
NIH is actively seeking input from all interested stakeholders including members of the scientific community, trainees, academic institutions, the private sector, health professionals, professional societies, advocacy groups, as well as other interested members of the public. You are invited to read the complete RFI and respond via the online comment form by 1 August 2022. 

Series of 60-minute webinars - Building Capacity in Personalized Medicine in Africa --- first webinar 28 September

Wed, Sep 7, 2022

IRESSEF is key member of the EU-Africa PerMed initiative - aimed at contributing to successful implementation of Personalized Medicine in Africa.

The initiative is organizing a series of 60-minute webinars to introduce Africa to this topic and is targeted at active members of national ethical and regulatory committees.

The first webinar  will be held on Wednesday 28 September 11:00 to 12:00 UTC.

The URL link to register and log in will be shared as soon as available

New functional enhancements on the Pan African Clinical Trials Registry (PACTR)

Fri, Feb 11, 2022

The Pan African Clinical Trials Registry (PACTR) is a regional register of clinical trials conducted in Africa. The registry is an African initiative serving the needs of Africans. It provides an open-access platform where clinical trials can be registered free of charge. The PACTR aims to increase clinical trial registration in Africa by developing awareness of the need to register trials and supporting trialists during registration. The PACTR has made a few enhancements to improve access and functionality of the registry:

  1. A new PACTR registry URL has been created : https://pactr.samrc.ac.za
  2.  New filters to allow researchers easily track the status of their trials : “submitted”; “in progress”; “approved”; “denied” or “incomplete” have been added. Researchers can use the filters to only search and view the specific status of their trials.

IAS 2019: WHO recommends dolutegravir as preferred HIV treatment option in all populations

Thu, Jul 25, 2019

Based on new evidence assessing benefits and risks, the WHO recommends the use of the HIV drug dolutegravir (DTG) as the preferred first-line and second-line treatment for all populations, including pregnant women and those of childbearing potential.  

Initial studies had highlighted a possible link between DTG and neural tube defects (birth defects of the brain and spinal cord that cause conditions such as spina bifida) in infants born to women using the drug at the time of conception. This potential safety concern was reported in May 2018 from a study in Botswana that found 4 cases of neural tube defects out of 426 women who became pregnant while taking DTG. Based on these preliminary findings, many countries advised pregnant women and women of childbearing potential to take efavirenz (EFV) instead.

New data from two large clinical trials comparing the efficacy and safety of DTG and EFV in Africa have now expanded the evidence base. The risks of neural tube defects are significantly lower than what the initial studies may have suggested. DTG is a drug that is more effective, easier to take and has fewer side effects than alternative drugs that are currently used. DTG also has a high genetic barrier to developing drug resistance, which is important given the rising trend of resistance to EFV and nevirapine-based regimens. In 2019, 12 out of 18 countries surveyed by WHO reported pre-treatment drug resistance levels exceeding the recommended threshold of 10%.

WHO press release: https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/22-07-2019-who-recommends-dolutegravir-as-preferred-hiv-treatment-option-in-all-populations

WHO Guideines 2019: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/325892/WHO-CDS-HIV-19.15-eng.pdf