Integrate – Fighting Lassa

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.

THE INTEGRATE consortium will: 

• Set up a clinical trial platform in West Africa to identify new and more effective drugs to treat Lassa fever and test their efficacy, tolerance and safety.

Starting off in the world’s largest Lassa fever treatment centers – the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH) and the Federal Medical Center Owo (FMCO) – in Nigeria, INTEGRATE will establish an international clinical trial platform to efficiently test new drug candidates in line with international ethical and scientific standards.  Additional clinical study centers will also be set up in other West African countries such as  Liberia, Benin, Guinea and a third site in Nigeria in Ebonyi State. 

• Build capacity for sustainable clinical research in West Africa through technology transfer and training. 

The INTEGRATE project will also strengthen the capacity of West African research and medical facilities to treat Lassa fever patients, and to initiate, plan, implement, and coordinate clinical trials and research on emerging infectious diseases. This will be done by setting up and expanding laboratories, proposing PhD and Masters degree programmes, and creating training materials and workshops. INTEGRATE will establish a multi-country, multicenter network of clinical researchers, laboratory experts, scientific engineers, social science specialists and regional sponsorship capacities in West Africa.  

• Raise awareness about Lassa fever within local communities to destigmatize the disease and mitigate future outbreaks.

INTEGRATE will bring together social science researchers, operational experts and local partners with experience in Lassa fever awareness activities to work with local communities to fight misinformation on clinical trials and Lassa fever, destigmatize the disease, and prevent future outbreaks.

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.