Capacity building for rapid containment of Lassa fever outbreaks and development of medical countermeasures in Nigeria - Capacity building for the realisation of clinical trials

To rapidly contain Lassa fever outbreaks and develop medical countermeasures for Lassa fever disease in Nigeria, it is necessary to review existing therapeutic options (ribavirin) due to doubt about the therapeutic efficacy and to investigate new drug candidates (e.g. favipiravir) for clinical use in Lassa fever patients. Together with the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH) in Nigeria, capacities are built and clinical studies are conducted jointly to establish local expertise:

• PAIRR: A prospective observational study to evaluate pharmacokinetic properties of routine ribavirin treatment for Lassa fever patients at ISTH. 
• SAFARI: A randomized, controlled phase II trial to investigate the pharmacokinetics, tolerability and safety of the drug candidate favipiravir by itself and in combination with ribavirin for the treatment of Lassa fever at the ISTH and theFederal Medical Center Owo (FMCO) in Nigeria. The SAFARI project is carried out in collaboration with the Institute National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (Inserm), the Université Bordeaux,  the Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA), all France, and the Institute of Pharmacy at the University of Hamburg, Germany.

The capacity building activities of the Lassa-Nigeria project are funded by the Global Health Protection Programme (GHPP) of the German Federal Ministry of Health.