Adjunctive Ivermectin Mass Drug Administration for Malaria Control

Summary

This is a cluster-randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial to evaluate the additive benefit of Ivermectin (IVM) (or Placebo) mass drug administration (MDA) to dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP) MDA for malaria control in a moderate to low malaria-endemic setting as an adjunctive strategy to existing programmatic malaria control measures. The regime of DP and IVM will target both human reservoirs of Plasmodium falciparum and the Anopheles gambiae vector respectively, with the aim of interrupting transmission. The trial will be conducted on the Bijagos Archipelago, where islands (clusters) will be randomised to receive seasonal DP and IVM or DP and Placebo MDA. The primary outcome will be the prevalence of infection with Plasmodium falciparum in all age groups detected by nucleic acid amplification testing during the peak malaria transmission season after two years of intervention.

Timeline

Start

2021-05-03

Primary completion

2023-03

Completion

2023-08

Publications

• Hutchins H, Pretorius E, Bradley J, Teixeira da Silva E, Vasileva H, Ndiath MO, Jones RT, Soumare HDM, Nyang H, Prom A, Sambou S, Ceesay F, Ceesay S, Moss S, Mabey D, Djata P, Nante JE, Martins C, Logan JG, Slater H, Tetteh K, Drakeley C, D'Alessandro U, Rodrigues A, Last A. Adjunctive ivermectin mass drug administration for malaria control on the Bijagos Archipelago of Guinea-Bissau (MATAMAL): a quadruple-blinded, cluster-randomised, placebo-controlled trial. Lancet Infect Dis. 2025 Apr;25(4):424-434. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(24)00580-2. Epub 2024 Nov 14.
• Hutchins H, Bradley J, Pretorius E, Teixeira da Silva E, Vasileva H, Jones RT, Ndiath MO, Dit Massire Soumare H, Mabey D, Nante EJ, Martins C, Logan JG, Slater H, Drakeley C, D'Alessandro U, Rodrigues A, Last AR. Protocol for a cluster randomised placebo-controlled trial of adjunctive ivermectin mass drug administration for malaria control on the Bijagos Archipelago of Guinea-Bissau: the MATAMAL trial. BMJ Open. 2023 Jul 7;13(7):e072347. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-072347.

Drugs

Indications