Clinical Research / Clinical Trial in Sri Lanka: Advancing Evidence for the Global Implementation of Spatial Repellents (AEGIS) Project in Sri Lanka
Advancing Evidence for the Global Implementation of Spatial Repellents (AEGIS) Project in Sri Lanka
The AEGIS project will generate further evidence about spatial repellents, a mosquito control product with the potential to dramatically improve malaria and dengue control across a range of low- and middle-income country contexts.
Through a series of randomized control cluster trials (RCTs) and operational research (OR) studies, the AEGIS project will build on existing evidence and provide the World Health Organization (WHO) with the data it needs to make spatial repellents available to those who need them most. The project is designed as a stage-gated 5-year program and will be achieved through:
- A malaria RCT in Kenya,
- A malaria RCT in Mali,
- An Aedes-borne virus RCT in Sri Lanka
- A malaria OR study in a refugee settlement in Uganda
Spatial repellents have the potential to enhance efforts to control diseases such as malaria and arboviruses (including dengue, Chikungunya and Zika). They are expected to be used with other WHO recommended vector control strategies and fill gaps and/or resolve challenges these strategies are facing when deployed.
AEGIS project in Sri Lanka
With funding from Unitaid, the University of Notre Dame is implementing this project in Sri Lanka in partnership National Dengue Control Unit, Ministry of Health of Sri Lanka and RemediumOne.
The Sri Lanka study will be conducted in the of Gampaha district of Sri Lanka across three Medical Officer of Health areas: Negombo, Wattala, Kelaniya. These areas have been selected due to their similar disease ecology, proximity to each other, and ease of access to the implementers of the trial. A total of 14,430 total subjects across 3,900 households will be enrolled.
Currently mapping of the study area and census measurements is ongoing. Information collected through the census will be used to assess the requirement of pre-stratification of clusters prior to randomization to spatial repellent active or placebo treatment arms to control for confounding and account for differences in spatial repellent efficacy.