IVI and Nigeria
Ongoing Collaboration
Advancing Research Capacity in West Africa (ARC-WA)
Since 2023, IVI has been leading a consortium working on two tracks:
- Track A: Preparing clinical trial sites in West Africa for Good Clinical Practices (GCP)-compliant Phase 2b and 3 Lassa Fever vaccine clinical trials.
- Track B: Developing and advancing concepts specific for outbreak scenarios to prepare and sustain clinical trial facilities in West Africa and—together with local and regional partners as well as stakeholders in the global ecosystem—implementing clinical research strategies and procedures to rapidly initiate clinical evidence generation around vaccines and other biological countermeasures.
Clinical trial sites are being established in Kenema, Sierra Leone; Phebe, Liberia; and Owo, Irrua, Abakaliki, and Bauchi, Nigeria. Wider engagement activities in West Africa and the Sahel are planned.
The project is supported by a $17.9 million USD grant from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). CEPI sees this project in West Africa as a critical component of their 100 Day Mission, to be able to prepare the sub-continent with a disease-agnostic network that can respond to generate research to any pathogen in an outbreak scenario. They intend to work with Africa CDC to roll out a similar model across the whole of Africa.
Consortium members and partners include the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the Margan Clinical Research Organization (MMARCRO) in Ghana, RCGH, the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Germany, the CEPI Enable Project, IAVI, Pharmalys, IQVIA, Edes & Associates, and Africa CDC.
Hepatitis E Epidemiology in Africa (HEVA)
In late 2020, IVI received a $500,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to conduct seroepidemiology of HEV in Africa. In 2021, IVI will form a consortium with the Institute Pasteur in Dakar, Senegal; the University of Ibadan in Ibadan, Nigeria; and the Institute Nationale de Recherche Biomédicale in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to screen approximately 18,000 blood samples from 19 countries to determine the prevalence of HEV across different demographics, groups, and regions in Africa.
Typhoid and Invasive Salmonellosis Surveillance
In 2015, IVI launched a multi-country typhoid burden study in six sub-Saharan African countries: Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, and Nigeria. The study’s aim was to collect standardized data on typhoid fever disease incidence, severity, sequelae, and economic burden, as well as the incidence and severity of invasive salmonellosis. Initially launched as the Severe Typhoid in Africa (SETA, 2015-2019) project, it later transitioned to SETAPlus (2020-2023) and has now evolved into the Surveillance for TCV Impact Assessment in Africa (STIA) project. In 2024, a meeting titled “African Stakeholder Engagement for Combating Invasive Salmonella Infections” convened public health leaders, researchers, and stakeholders from 17 African countries to foster a collaborative and sustainable approach to combating invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella and typhoid in Africa.
In Nigeria, STIA works with the University of Ibadan.
SETA Plus & COVID-19
Starting in 2020, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation granted an additional $4.3 million USD in funding for the continuation of typhoid surveillance in Africa. Operating at SETA sites in Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Madagascar, and Nigeria, SETA Plus will help establish disease burden data on invasive Salmonella and invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella and estimate the cost of illness associated with these diseases.
In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the SETA Plus team provided the sites in Ibadan, Nigeria with personal protective equipment (PPE) to ensure the safety of team members and study participants, and co-developed risk mitigation plans.
Previous Collaboration
Severe Typhoid in Africa (SETA)
The Severe Typhoid Fever in Africa (SETA) program, a multicountry surveillance study, aimed to understand the burden of severe typohid fever and the associated case fatalities, clinical characteristics, and potential host risk factors that may be related to the disease severity. The SETA program also aimed to investigate the host immune response and bacterial shedding patterns associated with invasive salmonellosis.
SETA conducted prospective healthcare facility–based surveillance with active screening of enteric fever and clinically suspected severe typhoid fever with complications was performed using a standardized protocol across the study sites in Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, and Nigeria.
From 2017 to 2019, SETA conducted surveillance of two regions in Oyo State, Nigeria: the capital Ibadan and the Ibarapa North area. These surveillance programs were conducted in collaboration with the University of Ibadan College of Medicine and University College Hospital, Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology.
The data generated by SETA is playing a central role in the development adequate immunization strategies and typhoid and iNTS disease control and prevention policies. The SETA study results will have a direct impact, particularly in countries eligible for support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, on the future uptake of typhoid conjugate vaccines.