Mirjam Groger receives Wolfgang Stille Science Award
Paul-Ehrlich-Gesellschaft (PEG) würdigt Arbeiten zur Therapie des Lassafiebers
Die Ärztin und Wissenschaftlerin Dr. Mirjam Groger erhält den renommierten Wolfgang-Stille-Preis 2022. Damit ehrt die PEG sie für ihre klinischen Studien zur medikamentösen Behandlung von Lassafieber.
Lassa fever is a haemorrhagic fever disease that is constantly present (endemic) in West Africa. Lassa viruses can be transmitted by multimammate rat (Mastomys natalensis). So far, there are neither reliably effective drugs nor an approved vaccine. Some infected persons develop severe courses with life-threatening internal bleeding, kidney failure and neurological symptoms; the mortality rate among hospital patients is up to 30 percent, depending on the institution. As standard therapy, doctors prescribe the antiviral drug ribavirin.
Between 2020 and 2021, Dr Mirjam Groger from BNITM's Clinical Research Department conducted field studies in Nigeria together with an international cross-institutional team. The team was able to rely on a proven institutional cooperation between the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH) in Edo State, Nigeria, and the departments of Virology and Clinical Research of the BNITM. Thanks to this cooperation, a clinical research center has been established over the past years at ISTH, the world's largest Lassa fever treatment centre. Here, Dr Groger investigated drug concentrations of ribavirin in the therapy of Lassa fever in patients.
Dr Cyril Erameh, Dr Peter Akhideno and Prof. Sylvanus Okogbenin contributed significantly to the success of this study as local study leaders at ISTH. The Global Health Protection Programme of the Federal Ministry of Health supported capacity building for clinical Lassa fever research at ISTH. Other important partners in this collaborative project were the Department of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of Hamburg (UHH) and the Section of Tropical Medicine at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). The project was supported by the German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF).
The team was able to show that the standard drug ribavirin, which has been used for decades, does not have sufficient antiviral effect on the virus and is therefore not an adequate therapy in this form.
In July 2022, the scientific journal Clinical Infectious Diseases published the study "Pharmacokinetics of Ribavirin in the Treatment of Lassa Fever: An Observational Clinical Study at the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Edo State, Nigeria". The results formed an important basis for the ISTH in Nigeria to establish an international clinical study platform with other partner institutions, on which new antiviral substances against Lassa fever can be tested and patients can be better cared for, the jury praised the "outstanding work" of Dr Mirjam Groger.
"I am very pleased about this honour and thank the jury very much," says Mirjam Groger. "It recognises an important collaborative research achievement: the work not only represents a milestone in global clinical Lassa fever research. It also makes an important contribution to building Good Clinical Practice compliant clinical research capacities at our Nigerian partner institution."
The Wolfgang Stille Award is endowed with 10,000 euros and commemorates the infectiologist and former PEG chairman Prof. Dr Wolfgang Stille (1935-2004). The PEG honours outstanding research work in the fields of infectiology and microbiology every two years with the prize donated by Pfizer Pharma GmbH. The prize will be awarded on the occasion of the spring meeting of the PEG on 4 April 2023.
Original publication
Groger, Mirjam et al.: Pharmacokinetics of Ribavirin in the Treatment of Lassa Fever: An Observational Clinical Study at the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Edo State, Nigeria.
Link to the press release of Paul-Ehrlich-Gesellschaft
https://www.p-e-g.org/aktuelle-mitteilungen/pressemitteilung-242.html
Contact person
Dr Mirjam Groger
Research Group Leader
Phone : +49 40 285380 480
Email : groger@bnitm.de
Dr Eleonora Schoenherr
Public Relations
Phone : +49 40 285380-269
Email : presse@bnitm.de
Julia Rauner
Public Relations
Phone : +49 40 285380-264
Email : presse@bnitm.de
Further information
