Community Intervention to Prevent Nipah Spillover

Last updated: May 23, 2021
Sponsor: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh
Overall Status: Active - Recruiting

Phase

1/2

Condition

N/A

Treatment

N/A

Clinical Study ID

NCT01811784
PR-12053
  • Ages 3-70
  • All Genders
  • Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Summary

Several human Nipah virus (NiV) outbreaks have occurred in Bangladesh since 2001with 71% case fatality. Outbreak investigations have repeatedly identified drinking fresh date palm sap as a risk factor for NiV transmission. Bats are the reservoir of NiV and infected bats can shed virus through both saliva and urine and can contaminate the raw sap. The virus can transmit to humans through ingestion of contaminated sap. To interrupt bats access to the sap, sap harvesters (gachhis) occasionally use skirts make by local materials. These skirts have been found to be effective to interrupt bats' access to the sap. As an indirect effect of the community level skirt promotion, some people stopped drinking raw sap. When trees have skirts, bats cannot access the sap and when people do not drink sap, they are at much lower risk of contracting Nipah virus. The purpose of this study is to design, implement and evaluate behavior change interventions to prevent human consumption of NiV contaminated sap through reducing raw sap consumption from unprotected trees in a district of the NiV affected regions in Bangladesh.

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion

Inclusion Criteria: For baseline and endline:

  • Women: the wife of the main male income earner in the household.
  • Men: the main income earner.
  • Sap harvesters.

Exclusion

Exclusion Criteria:

  • If the desired respondent is not in the household the team will make an appointment toreturn to the household. If the desired respondent will not be available within 24hours, the household will be skipped.
  • Household visitors.

Study Design

Total Participants: 7782
Study Start date:
November 10, 2012
Estimated Completion Date:
September 30, 2021

Study Description

Purpose:

Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of a behavior change communication (BCC) intervention in changing raw sap consumption behavior to prevent human consumption of NiV contaminated sap from unprotected trees in the districts of Rajbari (Phase one) and Natore (Phase two), in NiV-affected regions in Bangladesh.

Methods: The research study will be conducted in two phases.

Phase one:

We will conduct a BCC program to test the effectiveness of a single message of "do not drink raw sap". We will conduct a baseline survey as pre-intervention assessment in two intervention upazillas in Rajbari District and two control upazillas in Kushtia District. The intervention will consist of community meetings in each of the intervention area villages as well as an awareness campaign through closed circuit television in selected village tea stalls. We will conduct endline survey to as a post intervention assessment in the same upazillas in Rajbari and Kushtia Districts.

Main outcome measures/variables: Proportion of people who continue drinking raw date palm sap.

Phase two If a substantial proportion of the population continues to consume raw date palm sap even after implementation of the "avoid drinking sap" intervention, and the Government of Bangladesh agrees, we will conduct a BCC program to test the effectiveness of a risk reduction approach, encouraging people to avoid drinking sap, but telling them that if they do, to reduce risk they should only drink sap that comes from trees protected by banas. In addition to community meetings to convey this message to the general public, we will meet with gachhis and tree owners to encourage them to use banas. We will conduct a baseline survey as pre-intervention assessment in both intervention and control areas in Natore and Gopalganj Districts respectively. The intervention will consist of meetings with gachhis, tree owners and the community in each of the intervention area villages as well as an awareness campaign through closed circuit television in village tea stalls. We will conduct endline survey to as a post intervention assessment in both intervention (Natore District) and control areas (Gopalganj District).

Main outcome measures/variables: Proportion of people who stop drinking sap or who drink sap from skirt protected trees.

Connect with a study center

  • Two sub-districts in Gopalganj

    Gopalganj,
    Bangladesh

    Active - Recruiting

  • Mirpur and Bheramara

    Kushtia,
    Bangladesh

    Active - Recruiting

  • two sub-districts in Natore

    Natore,
    Bangladesh

    Active - Recruiting

  • Pangsha and Kalukhali sub-districts

    Rajbari,
    Bangladesh

    Active - Recruiting

  • Pangsha and Kalukhali sub-districts

    Rajbari District,
    Bangladesh

    Site Not Available

Not the study for you?

Let us help you find the best match. Sign up as a volunteer and receive email notifications when clinical trials are posted in the medical category of interest to you.