Category: Progress updates

Yippee! After a hiatus of almost a year, the CCRU team managed on 4 Feb to recruit a patient for the scrub typhus antibiotic resistance trial (START), a randomized control trial comparing the efficacy of doxycycline and azithromycin in treating scrub typhus. START PIs Tri Wangrangsimakul and Carlo Perrone congratulate the team for resuming screening and recruiting safely and effectively after such a long break!

Kwanchanok (Bow) Supaluck (dotted pullover, back to camera) and Sutthanit (Mil) Sitthisun (to Bow’s right) started the South and Southeast Asia Community Trials Network (SEACTN) rural febrile illness work-package A project at Baan Doi Chang and Baan Doi Wawee last week. Bow and Mil spent a couple of nights at these two remote villages in Mae Suai district of Chiangrai province. This coincided with Chinese New Year, celebrated by hill tribe minorities as well. The Lahu lead the celebrations at Baan Doi Chang. We wish to give special thanks to the villagers and Ban Doi Chang PCU Director Thossawan Vechpasit for allowing Bow and Mil participate in the revels and enjoy a delicious dinner.  

On 1 Feb, Jarntrah (Jarn) Sappayabanphot joined the CCRU team. A social scientist, Jarn will support our bioethics and public engagement activities. Her particular focus will be the verbal autopsy project, led by Tom Peto and Nan Shwe Nwe Htun, which aims to analyse qualitatively local beliefs concerning death and inform on the common causes of death in the villages that are part of the South and Southeast Asia Community Trials Network (SEACTN).

– With thanks to Carlo Perrone for text and Kwanchanok Supaluck for photo.

SMRU team is getting ready to launch SEACTN packages A & B. Package A will be implemented in an SMRU-operated malaria elimination area at malaria posts and health centres. Package B will recruit patients at Wangpha, Maw Kwer Thai clinics as well as Mae Ramat hospital.

– Thank you Dr Aung Pyae Phyo for text and Suphak Nosten for photo.

On 12 Nov, MORU’s Dr Rupam Tripura and Dr Bipin Adhikari, with local NGO director Dr Vanna Moul, introduced our new community-based studies to the provincial authorities. The studies, Village Malaria Worker Expansion (CAM-VMW) and Incidences, Causes, and Outcomes of Febrile Illness in Rural South and Southeast Asia (SEACTN-WP-A), will evaluate expanded roles and new diagnostics for village malaria workers, and also explore the main causes of illness in rural communities. The projects will run in parallel during 2022-23 in approximately 90 villages and the research will be done in partnership with MORU’s long-term collaborators Dr Lek Dysoley, Dr Chan Davoueng and Dr Yok Sovann.

– Thank you, Tom Peto for text and Rupam Tripura for photo.

On 21 Oct, Laos SEACTN field team members (from left) Dr Xaipasong Xaiyaphet, Dr Aitlada Soulivong and Dr Khambang Seevanhthong are shown on the Awk Phansa Festival which takes place on the last day of the Buddhist lent. It occurs three months after Khao Phansa, on the 15^th day (full moon) of the 11^th month of the lunar calendar. It is usually a day of many celebrations, most notably the Vientiane boat race festival, which has sadly been cancelled this year due to COVID-19.

– Text courtesy of Liz Ashley, with thanks Dr Xaipasong Xaiyaphet for photo

Every day, the rainy season brings more and more hints of winter with cool fresh breezy mornings and evenings here in Chiangrai. COVID cases have risen slightly in the province but most of the Chiangrai Clinical Research Unit (CCRU) team will soon be fully vaccinated. A special thanks to our partners at Chiangrai Prachanukroh Hospital for helping us get the jabs. Hopefully the efforts in immunising the population will soon reap some rewards and allow us to safely resume clinical research at the hospital.

Meanwhile, the CCRU team are busy getting things ready for Southeast Asia Clinical Trials Network (SEACTN) project work Package A. Working with primary care units in Chiangrai province to investigate the causes of febrile illness in rural northern Thailand, CCRU plan to start recruiting by end October-early November. The team, augmented by new members Duanghathai (Pang) Yasaeng and Kwanchanok (Bow) Supaluck, are very much looking forward to visiting our partners in the glorious hills surrounding Chiangrai. Part of the team, from left: Kwanchanok (Bow), Ploypatcha (Maew) and Duanghathai (Pang).

One of several large multicentre Flagship projects funded by Wellcome Innovations, SEACTN is led by Assoc. Prof. Yoel Lubell in MORU, Bangkok. SEACTN aims is to better understand the epidemiology of febrile illness in rural areas in five countries of South and Southeast Asia by developing a framework for the collection of information about the burden and impact of febrile illness. 

– Text and photo courtesy of Carlo Perrone.

Increasing COVID case numbers in Savannakhet province mean that the SEACTN project has not extended beyond one district yet. However, recruitment is continuing in Atsaphangthong. The first set of expertly taken dried blood spots were received in Vientiane today and checked by the Laboratory Coordinator Ms. Latsaniphone Boutthasavong.

 – With thanks to Liz Ashley, for text and photo.

On 4 Aug, Savannakhet began recruiting patients for the Southeast Asia Clinical Trials Network (SEACTN) project, making it the first SEACTN site to recruit patients. The photo shows a young participant not enjoying a finger prick, needed to perform a routine malaria test, but with extra drops of blood collected onto filter paper for pathogen testing in Bangkok. There were a few teething problems with the mobile application to collect the data but otherwise enrolment went smoothly. 

One of several large multicentre Flagship projects funded by Wellcome Innovations, SEACTN is led by Assoc. Prof. Yoel Lubell in MORU, Bangkok. SEACTN aims is to better understand the epidemiology of febrile illness in rural areas in five countries of South and Southeast Asia by developing a framework for the collection of information about the burden and impact of febrile illness. 

Located in southern Laos, Savannakhet province is under intense pressure at the moment, ensuring quarantine facilities for hundreds of migrant workers returning from Thailand every day, a significant proportion of whom are diagnosed with COVID-19. 

“After almost two years of preparation (and Covid delays) this is the first of the SEACTN sites to initiate activities on the ground,’ said SEACTN PI Prof Yoel Lubell. “SEACTN is a hugely ambitious project that would be a challenge to implement at the best of times. I’m extremely thankful therefore to everyone involved with SEACTN and the LOMWRU staff in particular for this achievement!”

The SEACTN recruitment began following permission from Dr Tiengkham Pongvongsa, Deputy Director of Savannakhet Provincial Health Department to hold a site initiation visit (SIV) in Atsaphangthong district from 27-31 July. COVID permitting, the Vientiane team will return to Savannakhet in 23-30 August to repeat the training in a second district, Phalanxay, if restrictions lift.

The training days were expertly organized and led by Dr Koukeo Phommasone, with great support from Dr Vimalay Souvong (CTSG), Ms Latsaniphone Boutthasavong (lab coordinator), Ms Vayouly Vadhamaly (CTSG), Dr Xaipasong Xaiyaphet (site coordinator and research physician), Dr Aitlada Soulivong (site research physician), Dr Khambang Seevanhthong (site research physician) and Mr Souksavanh Simanivong (site logistician). Recruitment will start early August using a phased approach.

– Text by Liz Ashley, with thanks to the SEACTN team and Dr Koukeo Phommasone for photo.