As always, the conference was a great opportunity to catch up with national and international colleagues and partners, make new friends and exchange ideas.

During the week, IDDO’s team was involved in oral and poster sessions on visceral leishmaniasis (VL), malaria, scrub typhus and data re-use. We also had a lot of interest and made new connections in our work across schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiases (STHs).

If you missed the posters, you can catch up with them here.

Our posters included:

The WWARN clinical trials publication library: a systematically constructed database of plasmodium clinical efficacy trials, poster presented by Junko Takata

Efficacy and safety of artemisinin-based and quinine-based treatments for uncomplicated falciparum malaria during pregnancy: a WWARN individual patient data meta-analysis

A systematic review of scrub typhus study landscape: protocol and preliminary literature search results

ECTMIH Conference

Come and meet the IDDO team. We will be ECTMIH at stand number 13 sharing more on our work in malaria, scrub typhus and visceral leishmaniasis (VL), and exchanging ideas on how we might work together.

During the conference we will be presenting oral sessions on VL and malaria and posters about our work on scrub typhus, clinical trials library and the efficacy and safety of artemisinin-based and quinine-based malaria treatments for pregnant women.

Tuesday, September 17,

• Ranitha Vongpromek, presents a Speed Talk, 16.40 – 16.48, Room 1A, on Field evaluation of automated digital malaria microscopy: EASYSCAN GO

Wednesday, September 18,

• PS220, The WWARN clinical trials publication library: a systematically constructed database of plasmodium clinical efficacy trials, poster presented by Junko Takata, during poster session 1pm to 2pm
• PS223, Efficacy and safety of artemisinin-based and quinine-based treatments for uncomplicated falciparum malaria during pregnancy: a WWARN individual patient data meta-analysis presented by Philippe Guérin in poster session from 1pm to 2pm

Thursday, September 19,

• PS432, A systematic review of scrub typhus study landscape: protocol and preliminary literature search results presented by Sauman Singh and Brittany Maguire in today's poster session 1pm to 2pm
• IDDO’s Director Professor Philippe Guérin will chair the Track 2 Treatment and Patient Care Session, from 4 to 5pm in Room 1A.
• Sauman Singh, presents a Speed Talk, 4.16pm to 4.24pm, Room 1A, Estimation of incidence risk of mortality and serious adverse events for antileishmanial therapies: an infectious diseases data observatory systematic review of published literature from 1980 to 2018

If you are not attending this year’s meeting, follow us on Twitter using the #ECTMIH2019 hashtag or visit @IDDOnews.

NNN Conference

We are at The Neglected Tropical Diseases NGO Network (NNN), 10th NTD NGO Network Conference (NNN) which is also happening in Liverpool next week. Come and find out more about our work on poverty-related infectious diseases.

Tuesday, September 17, 2pm to 3.30 at the ACC Liverpool alongside ECTMIH at the same venue, Room 11A

• Martin Walker, rapid talk and poster, Can data re-use fast-track developments in NTD treatment

The symposium will centre on discussions about poverty-related infectious diseases: visceral leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiases, Chagas disease and malaria.

IDDO’s Director Professor Philippe Guérin will present the opening plenary on Wednesday, 15 April, 2020.

Other IDDO presentations will include:

• Professor Simon Croft, former IDDO board member and Professor of Parasitology in the Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, will present Methodological challenges in measuring drug efficacy for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis.
• Dr Martin Walker, assistant professor at the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, and IDDO Senior Scientist, will discuss work in developing a research agenda for a data platform on schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiases.
• The IDDO symposium also welcomes Dr Nathalie Strub-Wourgaft, Director of Neglected Tropical Diseases with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, DNDi, who will discuss the Value of a data platform for drug development and for regulatory agencies: the case of Chagas disease.
• Professor Sir Nicholas White, Professor of Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford and also Professor at Mahidol University in Thailand and IDDO board member, who will reflect on the achievements of 10 years of the WWARN global malaria clinical data platform.

The BSP Spring meeting takes place over three-days and delegates will get the chance to attend more than 100 talks and workshops led by speakers from across the world.

Taking place at the ACC in Liverpool, from Monday, September 16, until Friday, September 20, the ECTMIH brings together scientists and experts from across the world by providing a platform to share research and innovation in the field of tropical medicine and global health.

This year the IDDO and WWARN scientists will present:

• A systematic review of scrub typhus study landscape: protocol and preliminary literature search results
• The WWARN clinical trials publication library: a systematically constructed database of plasmodium clinical efficacy trials
• Efficacy and safety of artemisinin-based and quinine-based treatments for uncomplicated falciparum malaria during pregnancy: a WWARN individual patient data meta-analysis

Dr Sauman Singh will present a speed talk on work he has been doing on visceral leishmaniasis, ‘Estimation of incidence risk of mortality and serious adverse events for antileishmanial therapies: an infectious diseases data observatory systematic review of published literature from 1980 to 2018’

The European congress is held every two years and this year marks the 11^th congress.

The first is a systematic review of the literature on design and analysis of antileishmanial clinical efficacy studies, and the second is a systematic review of published studies to estimate the baseline risk of serious adverse events and mortality in patients treated with antileishmanial therapies.

Led by Drs Prabin Dahal and Sauman Singh, this work has involved reviewing studies dating between 1980 and 2018. Data is currently being extracted and analysed with results expected to be published later this year.

Visceral leishmaniasis, also known as kala-azar, is transmitted to humans by bites from infected female phlebotomine sand flies. Symptoms include fever, weight loss, anaemia and it can damage internal organs. If left untreated the fatality rate is high. Globally, it is estimated there are up to 90,000 new cases of VL each year but only up to 45% are reported.

Clinical trials in VL have been conducted for over 100 years and there has been a progressive gain in understanding of the biological factors underpinning antileishmanial drug efficacy. Historically, antileishmanial therapies have been associated with a poor tolerability profile. Currently, there is little information regarding the frequency of the severe adverse events and deaths following antileishmanial chemotherapies.

This research will increase knowledge and understanding of how responses to these treatments have been assessed and measured, also examining their outcome and analysis methodology. Work could lead to improvements in the design of prospective VL clinical studies and will aid understanding of tolerability of these drugs.

Prabin Dahal said: “The first review aims to capture the current practices in design, conduct, analysis, and reporting of results in VL studies in published literature. Several countries in South Asia are currently making progress in eliminating VL under [national] kala-azar elimination programmes.

“The changing epidemiology of the disease demands innovative approaches for defining and measuring drug efficacy and drug effectiveness. The aim of this review is to comprehensively review the existing designs and explore the statistical approaches currently available to optimise the information obtained from field trials.

“The second review was designed to characterise the safety profile following administration of antileishmanial therapies. Data analysis is currently ongoing and the preliminary findings will be presented at the 11^th ECTMIH in Liverpool, in September.”

There is still time to shape IDDO’s VL Research Agenda and comment on prioritisation of key questions in VL research that could be answered using the data platform. Comments are open until 5 July 2019.  

For more information email vl@iddo.org