MRC Clinical research boosting African health
20 May 2006
The Medical Research Council (MRC) will mark World Clinical Trials Day on the 20th May with the launch of a new African health publication. Improving Health, Improving Lives details the MRC’s commitment to clinical research into diseases and conditions including HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis (TB) that have a devastating impact on people who live in Africa.
The MRC Director of Research Management, Dr Diana Dunstan, said: ‘‘The MRC is committed to working with other countries in Europe and Africa to develop new methods to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis and to establish a clinical base for these diseases. Building a research base in Africa allows MRC scientists to conduct clinical trials in the same populations that will eventually use the medicine or health intervention. It also means researchers can take local needs into account in clinical trial design. Working in partnership with African scientists has the additional benefit of building research capacity and expertise in Africa.’’
The MRC funds two front-line research units in The Gambia and Uganda that research ways to treat, diagnose and prevent HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB in some of the world’s poorest regions.
For example, MRC scientists have been running the DART (Development of Antiretroviral Therapy in Africa) trial since 2003. It aims to find out if rural doctors can use antiretroviral therapy to treat AIDS patients effectively in communities that lack laboratory facilities. In developed countries antiretroviral therapy has reduced the number of people who die from HIV-related diseases but the lack of laboratory support in parts of Africa has made its use expensive and logistically difficult in the past.
In addition, the MRC is currently co-ordinating the clinical trial of a vaginal microbiocide gel in South Africa, Tanzania, The Gambia and Uganda as a potential means of reducing the spread of the HIV virus. A second trial, run in partnership with researchers in Zambia, has revealed that treating young people with the antibiotic cotrimoxazole reduces deaths from AIDS.
The use of insecticide treated bed-nets and hepatitis B vaccination of newborn Gambian children are further practical examples of the MRC’s contribution to clinical research that has led to real health benefits for people living in Africa.
For more information or for a PDF copy of Improving Health, Improving Lives please contact the MRC press office:
Phone number: 020 7637 6011
Out of hours: 07818 428 297
PDF is available from the Improving Health, Improving Lives publication page.
Notes to editors:
Clinical trials: A clinical trial is a method of study used to determine whether a potential treatment has greater health benefits to patients than the treatment already available, or whether it is better than no therapy at all.
World clinical trials day: World clinical trials day aims to highlight the importance of clinical research and clinical trials worldwide. 20th May 2006, is the second International Clinical Trials Day, the first was held on the same day in 2005. On 20th May 1747, Scottish Naval physician James Lind began what is recognised as the first clinical trial by comparing six scurvy treatments on twelve sailors. The sailors who were given oranges and lemons recovered within six days, those given sea water, vinegar, elixir vitriol, cider or mustard seeds did not.
The Medical Research Council: The Medical Research Council (MRC) is funded by the UK tax-payer. It distributes funding for medical research aimed at improving human health. The research it supports and the scientists it trains meet the needs of the health services, the pharmaceutical and other health-related industries and academia. The MRC has funded work which has led to some of the most significant discoveries and achievements in medicine in the UK.
