Treatment trial

INTEGRATE – A global alliance against Lassa fever – is an international consortium of 15 leading research institutes, health facilities and humanitarian organizations from 10 countries working together to fight Lassa fever.

Coordinated by the medical humanitarian NGO, ALIMA and the CORAL (Clinical and Operational Research Alliance) platform,  in collaboration with the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM) and the world’s largest Lassa fever treatment centers – the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH) and the Federal Medical Center Owo (FMCO) in Nigeria, this pioneering five-year study brings together research structures from West Africa, Europe and the USA.

INTEGRATE is funded by the European Union’s EDCTP3 programme under the sponsorship of ISTH, and with the French national medical research agency, ANRS-MIE as co-sponsor.

What is Lassa fever?

Lassa fever is a deadly acute viral hemorrhagic fever that kills thousands of people every year in West Africa.
Over 900,000 people are infected annually in Benin, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Togo*.

Fever, diarrhea, hemorrhaging, and death in severe cases, is what follows after a person is infected by the Lassa virus through food or material contaminated by rodents. It can be transmitted from person to person through contact with infected body fluids. Lassa fever is often difficult to diagnose, and acts with devastating speed, killing people within 14 days of their first symptoms. During Lassa fever outbreaks, the mortality rate ranges from 10 to 30%, with in-hospital mortality at 12%.

Loss of life could be avoided if Lassa fever is diagnosed and treated in time. However, the current recommended treatment drug, ribavirin, is associated with worrying toxicity and is of  questionable efficacy*.  New, more effective, Lassa fever treatment drugs are urgently required. 

Lassa fever is one of the most dangerous threats to public health in the region given its epidemic potential, and the WHO has listed it as a priority disease for urgent research and development.

« Lassa fever is a huge burden on the community. Families lose their livelihoods, children lose their mothers, and you cannot imagine the loss and the long-lasting impact of this disease that has been hitting communities year after year »
Pr. Sylvanus Okogbenin former Chief Medical Director, Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH), Nigeria and Principal Investigator, INTEGRATE
« By bringing together key research institutes and medical facilities, the implementation of INTEGRATE, the first-ever clinical trial platform in West Africa, will be critical in advancing our understanding and ability to treat and prevent Lassa fever. »
Dr. Marie Jaspard Coordinator – Emerging Infectious Diseases CORAL / ALIMA / Inserm and Principal Investigator of INTEGRATE
« INTEGRATE is a global collaboration between south and north, with many stakeholders and institutions across West Africa, Europe, and North America, working together on this important platform clinical trial in Lassa Fever. This initiative will also help everyone to be better prepared (with increased preparedness skills), and resilient to the next pandemic. »
Dr Alpha DialloANRS Emerging Infectious Diseases, an autonomous agency of the Inserm (French National Institute of Health and Medical Research)
« The INTEGRATE consortium is particularly innovative because it allows for new treatment drugs to be added to the trial whenever they become available. This enables us to very efficiently identify the best drug that should then go forward in phase III to be then developed as a better treatment for Lassa fever. »
Pr. Michael Ramharter Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine – BNITM (Germany) and Principal Investigator, INTEGRATE
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