Clinical trial NCT01800942: Prevention of Bacterial Infections in Newborn
Official title: Prevention of Bacterial Infections in the Newborn by Pre-delivery Administration of Azithromycin (AZI): a Placebo-controlled Randomized Trial
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: PHASE3
Conditions: Neonatal Infection
Keywords: prevention
bacterial infection
neonates
women in labour
Azithromycin
Lead sponsor: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2013-02-28
Enrollment: 829
Sex: FEMALE
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 45
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: The last decade has witnessed an important reduction of the mortality in children under 5 years but such reduction has not impacted in neonates. Mortality in neonates contributes 40% of all deaths occurring in children below 5 years of age.

Severe bacterial disease is among the leading causes of neonatal deaths. Bacterial disease follows bacterial infection. Individuals can be infected without developing disease (carriage stage) but infection is needed to subsequently develop disease. In sub-Saharan Africa, bacterial carriage (i.e. in the birth canal and/or nasopharyngeal tract) is very common in all age groups, with the consequence that occurrence of bacterial disease is one of the highest in the world.

Newborns can be infected during labour - when passing through the birth canal - and during the first days/weeks of life, as a consequence of the close physical contact with the mother, if the latter carries bacteria in the nasopharyngeal tract.

If the mother is an important source of bacterial infection to the newborn, treating mothers with a powerful antibiotic during labour should decrease bacterial carriage and therefore diminish the risk of bacterial transmission to the newborn during the first days/weeks of life, which should in turn result in the lower occurrence of severe bacterial disease and hence lower mortality.

The purpose of this trial is to evaluate the impact of a single oral dose of azithromycin given to women in labour on bacterial carriage of the newborn as well as the women during the first month after delivery.

The investigators have selected an antibiotic (azithromycin) that in sub-Saharan Africa has already shown both a strong impact on bacterial nasopharyngeal carriage and on all-cause mortality when administered to everybody in a community (mass drug administration). This specific antibiotic has several advantages for being deployable as a simple intervention in rural Africa, i.e. it requires a single oral administration, it has no special storage requirements and it has the potential to eliminate many of the bacteria commonly causing severe disease in newborn.

This clinical trial will be conducted in a peri-urban health facility in Western Gambia. If an impact is shown, the next step would be to conduct a larger study aiming at establishing if the intervention, implemented at a lower level of care (most African women deliver at home assisted by traditional birth assistants), decreases the occurrence of neonatal bacterial disease


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Pregnant women (aged 18 to 45 years)
* in labour
* attending a health centre in western Gambia for delivery

Exclusion Criteria:

* Known HIV infection.
* Any chronic or acute conditions of the women that might interfere with the study as judged by the research clinician.
* Planned travelling out of the catchment area during the following 2 months (follow-up period)
* Planned caesarean section
* Known required referral
* Known multiple pregnancy
* Known severe congenital malformation
* Intrauterine death confirmed before randomization
* Known allergy to macrolides
* Consumption of antibiotic within the week before randomisation

Primary outcomes:
measure: the prevalence of nasopharyngeal carriage of the newborn of any of the following bacteria: 1) Group B Streptococci (GBS) , 2) S.pneumoniae and 3) S.aureus
timeFrame: 6 days
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Vaginal bacterial Group B Streptococci(GBS), S.pneumoniae and S.aureus) carriage at day six post-delivery. Vaginal bacterial (GBS, S.pneumoniae and S.aureus) carriage at day 8-10 post-delivery
timeFrame: 6-13 days
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Fajara
country: Gambia
facility: Medical Research Council Unit
Study officials:
affiliation: Medical Research Council Unit, The Gambia
name: Anna Roca, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Jagne I, Keeley AJ, Bojang A, Camara B, Jallow E, Senghore E, Oluwalana C, Bah SY, Turner CE, Sesay AK, D'Alessandro U, Bottomley C, de Silva TI, Roca A. Impact of intra-partum azithromycin on carriage of group A streptococcus in the Gambia: a posthoc analysis of a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial. BMC Infect Dis. 2022 Jan 29;22(1):103. doi: 10.1186/s12879-022-07080-4.
citation: Camara B, Oluwalana C, Miyahara R, Lush A, Kampmann B, Manneh K, Okomo U, D'Alessandro U, Roca A. Stillbirths, Neonatal Morbidity, and Mortality in Health-Facility Deliveries in Urban Gambia. Front Pediatr. 2021 Feb 15;9:579922. doi: 10.3389/fped.2021.579922. eCollection 2021.
citation: Bojang A, Baines SL, Camara B, Guerillot R, Donovan L, Marques RS, Secka O, D'Alessandro U, Bottomley C, Howden BP, Roca A. Impact of Intrapartum Oral Azithromycin on the Acquired Macrolide Resistome of Infants' Nasopharynx: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Clin Infect Dis. 2020 Dec 15;71(12):3222-3225. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa609.
citation: Bojang A, Baines SL, Donovan L, Guerillot R, Stevens K, Higgs C, Bottomley C, Secka O, Schultz MB, Goncalves da Silva A, Seemann T, Stinear TP, Roca A, Howden BP. Genomic investigation of Staphylococcus aureus recovered from Gambian women and newborns following an oral dose of intra-partum azithromycin. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2019 Nov 1;74(11):3170-3178. doi: 10.1093/jac/dkz341.
citation: Roca A, Camara B, Oluwalana C, Lette K, Bottomley C, D'Alessandro U. Long-lasting effect of oral azithromycin taken by women during labour on infant nutrition: Follow-up cohort of a randomized clinical trial in western Gambia. PLoS One. 2018 Oct 25;13(10):e0206348. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0206348. eCollection 2018.
citation: Bojang A, Camara B, Jagne Cox I, Oluwalana C, Lette K, Usuf E, Bottomley C, Howden BP, D'Alessandro U, Roca A. Long-term Impact of Oral Azithromycin Taken by Gambian Women During Labor on Prevalence and Antibiotic Susceptibility of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus in Their Infants: Follow-up of a Randomized Clinical Trial. Clin Infect Dis. 2018 Sep 28;67(8):1191-1197. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciy254.
citation: Burr SE, Camara B, Oluwalana C, Bojang E, Bottomley C, Bojang A, Bailey RL, D'Alessandro U, Roca A. Does azithromycin given to women in labour decrease ocular bacterial infection in neonates? A double-blind, randomized trial. BMC Infect Dis. 2017 Dec 28;17(1):799. doi: 10.1186/s12879-017-2909-4.
citation: Roca A, Oluwalana C, Bojang A, Camara B, Kampmann B, Bailey R, Demba A, Bottomley C, D'Alessandro U. Oral azithromycin given during labour decreases bacterial carriage in the mothers and their offspring: a double-blind randomized trial. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2016 Jun;22(6):565.e1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cmi.2016.03.005. Epub 2016 Mar 26.
citation: Salman S, Davis TM, Page-Sharp M, Camara B, Oluwalana C, Bojang A, D'Alessandro U, Roca A. Pharmacokinetics of Transfer of Azithromycin into the Breast Milk of African Mothers. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2015 Dec 28;60(3):1592-9. doi: 10.1128/AAC.02668-15.
citation: Roca A, Oluwalana C, Camara B, Bojang A, Burr S, Davis TM, Bailey R, Kampmann B, Mueller J, Bottomley C, D'Alessandro U. Prevention of bacterial infections in the newborn by pre-delivery administration of azithromycin: Study protocol of a randomized efficacy trial. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2015 Nov 19;15:302. doi: 10.1186/s12884-015-0737-3.