Since May, 31 we can be pleased about a new associated project in our alliance:

Vitality

More than 2 million children globally live with HIV, 90% of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Vitality is an EDCTP (European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership) funded clinical study in Zambia and Zimbabwe analysing the effect of vitamin D supplementation on health improvement of HIV-positive children.

One of the adverse effects of the HIV infection among children are bone deficiencies (skeletal development). It has already been observed that children of HIV-positive mothers without antiretroviral therapy show considerable growth retardation. Therefore, the purpose of the VITALITY study is to establish whether supplementation with vitamin D3 (weekly) and calcium carbonate (daily) improves musculoskeletal health among peripubertal children living with HIV aged 10-19 years over a period of 48 weeks. In addition to this, the study will also investigate the intervention's effect on muscle mass and strength and to determine the sustainability of the intervention's effects by performing a follow-up at 96 weeks after the supplementation period.

"Vitality is a great example of an interdisciplinary intervention study to improve the outcome of an important infectious disease by linking nutritional, metabolic, immunological and microbiome analyses, and with the strong potential of immediate benefit for the patients", explains Prof. Ulrich Schaible from the Research Center Borstel, speaker of the Leibniz Research Alliance INFECTIONS.

Further information on Vitality can be found here.