Care package for treatment and control of visceral leishmaniasis in East Africa (AfriCoLeish)

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is fatal if left untreated; East Africa is one of the key endemic areas in the world. Untreated patients are part of the retransmission cycle and VL-HIV coinfection is an additional emerging problem.

Existing VL monotherapies are difficult to administer, toxic, costly and long with emerging resistance. A new short course combination (shorter than the 17 days of the combination treatment sodium stibogluconate and paromomycin – SSG&PM) is needed to improve treatment options; there is also a major need for improved and effective management of VL in HIV co-infected patients, who require a different treatment course for the VL infection and suffer from recurrent VL.

The AfriCoLeish project aims to develop and deliver a package of care for VL patients in East Africa through safe and cost-effective treatments, therefore improving current case management and contributing to disease control in the region. The package of care consists in a possible alternative, safe and effective co-administration of two drugs to further shorten treatment duration from the current 17 days, and for VL-HIV co-infections the delivery of an intervention to prevent relapse as well as a safe and highly effective treatment.

The project is led by a unique Consortium of European and African partners, which will design and carry out clinical studies to reach implementation of new treatments by 2015.

The dissemination of the study results will facilitate use in East Africa and support national programmes in the adoption of new treatments. The improved solutions will allow VL patients in East Africa to benefit from safe, cost-effective and short treatments, and reduce the treatment cost for health providers. The evidence base from the trials may additionally benefit VL patients in other endemic areas, including Europe.