Publications by authors named "Augustin Augier"

Background: Current standard management of severe acute malnutrition uses ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) at a single weight-based calculation resulting in an increasing amount of RUTF provided to the family as the child's weight increases during recovery. Using RUTF at a gradually reduced dosage as the child recovers could reduce costs while achieving similar growth response.

Methods: We conducted an open-label, non-inferiority, randomised controlled trial in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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Background: Global access to acute malnutrition treatment is low. Different programmes using different nutritional products manage cases of severe acute malnutrition and moderate acute malnutrition separately. We aimed to assess whether integrating severe acute malnutrition and moderate acute malnutrition treatment into one programme, using a single nutritional product and reducing the dose as the child improves, could achieve similar or higher individual efficacy, increase coverage, and minimise costs compared with the current programmes.

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Objectives: The overall death toll from COVID-19 in Africa is reported to be low but there is little individual-level evidence on the severity of the disease. This study examined the clinical spectrum and outcome of patients monitored in COVID-19 care centres (CCCs) in two West-African countries.

Methods: Burkina Faso and Guinea set up referral CCCs to hospitalise all symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 carriers, regardless of the severity of their symptoms.

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Background: Lassa fever is a viral haemorrhagic fever endemic in parts of west Africa. New treatments are needed to decrease mortality, but pretrial reference data on the disease characteristics are scarce. We aimed to document baseline characteristics and outcomes for patients hospitalised with Lassa fever in Nigeria.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on optimizing the treatment of acute malnutrition (AM) in children by comparing a simplified approach (OptiMA) with standard nutritional protocols, particularly targeting children aged 6-59 months with specific malnutrition criteria.
  • It was conducted as a non-inferiority clinical trial in the Democratic Republic of Congo, assessing the effectiveness of the OptiMA treatment over a six-month period.
  • Ethics approvals were secured from relevant health committees to ensure the study met ethical standards during its execution.
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Background: Lassa Fever (LF), is a severe viral disease prevalent in Western Africa. It is classified as a priority disease by the World Health Organization (WHO). Ribavirin is the recommended therapy despite weak evidence of its efficacy.

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Background: Enrolling participants in clinical trials can be challenging, especially with respect to prophylactic vaccine trials. The vaccination of study personnel in Ebola vaccine trials during the 2014-2016 epidemic played a crucial role in inspiring trust and facilitating volunteer enrollment. We evaluated the ethical and methodological considerations as they applied to an ongoing phase 2 randomized prophylactic Ebola vaccine trial that enrolled healthy volunteers in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Mali in a non-epidemic context.

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Objective: Health care workers (HCWs) in contact with patients with Ebola virus disease (EVD) are exposed to a risk of viral contamination. Fomites contaminated with the patient's blood or body fluids represents this risk. Our study aims to detect Ebola virus (EBOV) RNA within the high- and low-risk areas of an Ebola treatment unit (ETU) located in inland Guinea during the 2014-2015 West African Ebola epidemics.

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The 2014 Ebola epidemic has shown the importance of accurate and rapid triage tools for patients with suspected Ebola virus disease (EVD). Our objective was to create a predictive score for EVD. We retrospectively reviewed all suspected cases admitted to the Ebola treatment center (ETC) in Nzérékoré, Guinea, between December 2, 2014, and February 23, 2015.

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Article Synopsis
  • Ebola virus disease (EVD) is highly fatal, and during the 2014 outbreak, the WHO identified favipiravir as a potential treatment, but ethical concerns prevented randomized trials.
  • Instead, a multicenter non-randomized trial was conducted where all patients received favipiravir to assess its feasibility, safety, and effectiveness in treating EVD.
  • Participants were selected based on specific criteria and received a set dosage of favipiravir, with the goal of gathering preliminary data to inform future research rather than establish definitive treatment guidelines.
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