PLoS neglected tropical diseases
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Prescription of concomitant medications in patients treated with Nifurtimox Eflornithine Combination Therapy (NECT) for T.b. gambiense second stage sleeping sickness in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Nifurtimox eflornithine combination therapy (NECT) to treat human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), commonly called sleeping sickness, was added to the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Essential Medicines List in 2009 and to the Paediatric List in 2012. NECT was further tested and documented in a phase IIIb clinical trial in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) assessing the safety, effectiveness, and feasibility of implementation under field conditions (NECT-FIELD study). This trial brought a unique possibility to examine concomitant drug management. ⋯ The prescription of concomitant treatments was coherent with the clinical and safety profile of the patients. However, some prescription habits would need to be adapted in the future to the evolving available pharmacopoeia. A list of minimal essential medication that should be available at no cost to patients in treatment wards is proposed to help the different actors to plan, manage, and adequately fund drug supplies for advanced HAT infected patients.