Syndromic infections

When children who are very unwell arrive at hospitals in Africa and other low-income countries, it is often hard to work out what is causing the illness. Malaria and other common infections in these settings can give the same symptoms. These symptoms may include fever or low levels of haemoglobin in the blood.

It is often impossible to find out exactly what is making them sick. This is a big problem, as it makes it hard to know how best to treat them. In this programme we will design and run studies to work out the best ways to treat these children. We aim to reduce their chance of dying and make sure that guidelines recommend the best approaches.

We will also design and run studies to work out the best ways of managing serious infections caused by bacteria more generally. In particular we want to reduce the threat posed by antimicrobial (drug) resistance.

We will particularly look at infants (less than 30 days old) and children to work out the antibiotic doses they should be getting. The antibiotic doses children get vary hugely. This is because doses for children are mostly based on past practice, rather than evidence.