Jean-Pierre Van Geertruyden

Jean-Pierre Van Geertruyden
University of Antwerp | UA · Global Health Institute

MD MSc PhD

About

370
Publications
105,306
Reads
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6,092
Citations
Introduction
I worked over a decade as a clinician/manager in in LMICs, mostly in SSAfrica with WHO and MSF. Conducting academic activities with colleagues from & in LMICs creates a new generation of academics training the next generation. They may invent home grown solutions and give a sound expert advice to their policy makers. My main expertise lies in bio-statistical support, designing (clinical) epidemiological study designs and conducting clinical trials (Phase 1-2-3). (Development of) molecular tools are incorporated in most studies. Apart from Malaria research, I’ve set up research lines on NCDs, cancer diagnosis & treatment, vaccine development, etc. with colleagues with complementary expertise. More on https://www.uantwerp.be/ghi
Additional affiliations
September 1994 - June 1997
Doctors Without Borders
Position
  • MD, medical coordinator
Description
  • Brussels Area, Belgium & Burundi, Guinée-Cky, Bosnia, Rwanda/DRCongo, B. Faso
September 1997 - June 1998
World Health Organization WHO
Position
  • STC
September 1998 - July 2003
Doctors Without Borders
Position
  • medical expert
Description
  • follow up projects in Afghanistan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Turkya

Publications

Publications (370)
Article
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Background: Quinine or alternative artemisinin-based combination treatment (ACT) is the recommended rescue treatment for uncomplicated malaria. However, patients are often re-treated with the same ACT though it is unclear whether this is the most suitable approach. We assessed the efficacy and safety of re-treating malaria patients with uncomplica...
Article
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Background: Asymptomatic low-density gametocyte carriers represent the majority of malaria-infected individuals. However, the impact of recommended treatment with single low dose of primaquine and an artemisinin-based combination therapy to reduce transmission in this group is unknown. Methods: This was a four-arm, open label, randomized control...
Article
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Possible pathophysiological, clinical and epidemiological interactions between HIV and tropical pathogens, especially malaria are a concern in tropical areas. Two decades of research learned that HIV related immune suppression is correlated with increased malaria infection, burden and treatment failure and with complicated malaria irrespective of t...
Article
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Tanzania abandoned sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) as the first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria in 2006 due to high levels Plasmodium falciparum resistance. However, SP is still being used for intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy (IPTp-SP). This study aimed to assess the pattern of P. falciparum dihydrofolate reductase (Pfdhfr...
Article
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Background Information regarding the safety and efficacy of artemisinin combination treatments for malaria in pregnant women is limited, particularly among women who live in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods We conducted a multicenter, randomized, open-label trial of treatments for malaria in pregnant women in four African countries. A total of 3428 pre...
Article
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Several interventional strategies have been implemented in malaria endemic areas where the burden is high, that include among others, intermittent preventive treatment (IPT), a tactic that blocks transmission and can reduce disease morbidity. However, the implementation IPT strategies raises a genuine concern, intervening the development of natural...
Article
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Background Although there are several areas in southern Ethiopia environmentally favourable for cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), studies on the existence and risk factors of CL are lacking beyond a few well-known hotspots. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and risk factors of CL in Bilala Shaye, a village in the southern Ethiopian highlands at...
Article
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The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) struggles with low full childhood vaccination coverage (around 50 %) and a high children-under-five mortality rate (79 deaths per 1000 live births). This situation is potentially exacerbated by vaccine hesitancy, which was identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the top 10 global health...
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Objective: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) increasingly contribute to maternal morbidity and mortality. We determined the association between NCDs and obstetric complications at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH) in southwestern Uganda. Methods: In this retrospective records review, we randomly selected records of women admitted for deliver...
Preprint
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Background: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) and other skin diseases impose a high burden in Ethiopia, yet underreporting is common due to limited access to diagnostics and treatment. Decentralizing care could improve this situation but may necessitate substantial changes in the healthcare system. This study assessed the available resources, and health...
Preprint
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The wildlife reservoir and spillover mechanisms of the Ebola virus remain elusive despite extensive research efforts in endemic areas. This study employed a One Health approach to examine the virus circulation in wildlife and the associated human exposure risks in the Tshuapa province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2021, we collected a...
Preprint
The Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016 to 2030 targets eliminating malaria from at least 35 countries and reducing case incidence by 90% globally. The importation of parasites due to human mobilization presents a significant challenge to achieve elimination as it can undermine local interventions. A thorough understanding of importation is...
Article
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Artemisinin‐based combination therapy (ACT) is the first‐line recommended treatment for uncomplicated malaria. Pharmacokinetic (PK) properties in pregnant women are often based on small studies and need to be confirmed and validated in larger pregnant patient populations. This study aimed to evaluate the PK properties of amodiaquine and its active...
Article
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Hard-to-reach communities represent Peru's main challenge for malaria elimination, but information about transmission in these areas is scarce. Here, we assessed Plasmodium vivax (Pv) and P. falciparum (Pf) transmission dynamics, resistance markers, and Pf hrp2/3 deletions in Nueva Jerusalén (NJ), a remote, indigenous community in the Peruvian Amaz...
Article
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This study explored the experiences of healthcare providers (HCPs) and frontline workers who were involved in an Ebola vaccine trial in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The researchers interviewed a total of 99 participants (HCPs and frontline workers) living and working in the Boende health district during the period of the study, from Februa...
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Introduction Clear guidelines to implement ancillary care (AC) in clinical trials conducted in resource-constrained settings are lacking. Here, we evaluate an AC policy developed for a vaccine trial in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and formulate policy recommendations. Methods To evaluate the AC policy, we performed a longitudinal cohort st...
Research
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Background: The training of health workers in the use of malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) is an important component of a wider strategy to improve parasite-based malaria diagnosis at lower level health care facilities (LLHFs) where microscopy is not readily available for all patients with suspected malaria. This study describes the process and...
Preprint
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Hard-to-reach communities represent Peru's main challenge for malaria elimination, but information about transmission in these areas is scarce. Here, we assessed Plasmodium vivax (Pv) and P. falciparum (Pf) transmission dynamics, resistance markers, and Pf hrp2/3 deletions in Nueva Jerusalén (NJ), a remote, indigenous community in the Peruvian Amaz...
Article
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Background Mass drug administration (MDA) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) are potent malaria burden reduction tools. The impact of combining MDA and IRS is not well documented. We evaluated the impact of MDA + IRS compared to IRS alone at a high transmission site in Eastern Uganda. Methods A quasi-experimental study was implemented in Toroma an...
Preprint
BACKGROUND Iris scanning, as a means of human biometric recognition, has been increasingly deployed over the last decade and continues to improve and expand. To better understand the acceptability of this technology, we report the long-term experiences of healthcare provider (HCP) and frontline worker participants with iris scanning as an identific...
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Introduction Maternal healthcare utilization, particularly the institutional delivery, is disproportionately low in rural Ethiopia. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of an integrated package of community-based interventions on the improved knowledge of obstetric danger signs, birth preparedness, and institutional delivery services util...
Article
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Despite continuous efforts to control schistosomiasis (SCH) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), it still poses a significant challenge. In order to enhance control measures, additional research is necessary. This study documents the burden of SCH infection and its predictors in a rural area of the DRC. We conducted a household cross-sect...
Article
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Background Pre-vaccination monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio was previously suggested as a marker for malaria vaccine effectiveness. We investigated the potential of this cell ratio as a marker for malaria vaccine efficacy and effectiveness. Effectiveness was investigated by using clinical malaria endpoint, and efficacy was investigated by using surroga...
Article
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In this paper, we discuss challenges associated with implementing a policy for Ancillary Care (AC) for related and unrelated (serious) adverse events during an Ebola vaccine trial conducted in a remote area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Conducting clinical trials in resourceconstrained settings can raise context-related challenges that h...
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Introduction A serosurvey among health care providers (HCPs) and frontliners of an area previously affected by Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was conducted to assess the seroreactivity to Ebola virus antigens. Methods Serum samples were collected in a cohort of HCPs and frontliners (n = 698) participants in...
Article
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Background In response to recent Ebola epidemics, vaccine development against the Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV) has been fast-tracked in the past decade. Healthcare providers and frontliners working in Ebola endemic areas are at high risk of contracting and spreading the virus. Methods This study assessed the safety and immunogenicity of the 2-dose hete...
Article
Background: In high transmission settings, most school-aged children harbour malaria parasites without showing symptoms, often leading to anaemia and possibly impaired psychomotor and cognitive abilities. We aimed to assess the effectiveness and safety of intermittent preventive treatment for malaria in school-aged children (IPTsc) living in highl...
Article
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Background School-aged children (SAC) have an increased risk to contract malaria and play a major role in its transmission dynamics. However, their malaria prevention experience is poor. Thus, the effect of malaria prevention education (MPE) on bed net utilization, treatment seeking from a health facility and cumulative incidence of malaria was eva...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: Mass drug administration (MDA) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) are potent malaria burden reduction tools. The impact of combining MDA and IRS is not well documented. We evaluated the impact of MDA+IRS compared to IRS alone at a high transmission site in Eastern Uganda. Methods: A quasi-experimental study was implemented in Toroma and...
Article
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Controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) studies, i.e. the deliberate infection of healthy volunteers with malaria parasites to study immune response and/or test drug or vaccine efficacy, are increasingly being conducted in malaria endemic countries, including in sub-Saharan Africa. However, there have been few studies on the perceptions and accep...
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Objective: We aimed to synthesize available evidence on the effects of community-based interventions in improving various dietary outcome measures. Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis Setting: We searched databases including Medline, EMBASE, PSYCINFO, CINAHL, and the Cochrane registry for studies reported between January 2000 and June 202...
Article
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While the power of next-generation sequencing technologies to inform and guide malaria control programs has become broadly recognized, the integration of genomic data for operational incorporation into malaria surveillance remains a challenge in most countries where malaria is endemic. The main obstacles include limited infrastructure, limited acce...
Article
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Background Despite efforts to make maternal health care services available in rural Ethiopia, utilisation status remains low. Therefore, this study aimed to assess maternal health care services’ status and determinants in rural Ethiopia. Methods The study used quasi-experimental pre- and post-comparison baseline data. A pretested, semi-structured,...
Article
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Background Malaria morbidity and mortality increase in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) may be the consequence of the low utilization rate of long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) resulting from poor compliance due to adverse events (AEs). This study aimed at determining the prevalence and predictors of AEs following the mass distributio...
Preprint
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Introduction A serosurvey among health care providers (HCPs) and frontliners of an area previously affected by Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was conducted to assess the seroreactivity to Ebola virus antigens. Methods Serum samples were collected in a cohort of HCPs and frontliners (n=698) participants in t...
Article
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Introduction Uganda has implemented lifelong antiretroviral therapy for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission since September 2012. Implementation of this strategy has been met with health provider and client challenges which have persisted up to date. This study explored providers’ perspectives on the challenges and countermeasures of...
Article
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Background It has been more than 20 years since the malaria epidemiologic shift to school-aged children was noted. In the meantime, school-aged children (5–15 years) have become increasingly more vulnerable with asymptomatic malaria prevalence reaching up to 70%, making them reservoirs for subsequent transmission of malaria in the endemic communiti...
Article
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Background The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the second most malaria-affected country in the world with 21,608,681 cases reported in 2019. The Kongo Central (KC) Province has a malaria annual incidence of 163 cases/per 1000 inhabitants which are close to the national average of 153.4/1000. However, the malaria prevalence varies both bet...
Article
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Background Though school-aged children (SAC) are at high risk of malaria, they are the ones that benefit the least from malaria prevention measures. A cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of malaria prevention education (MPE) on insecticide-treated bed net (ITN) utilization and prompt diagnosis, reported incidenc...
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Background Though Ethiopia has expanded Maternity Waiting Homes (MWHs) to reduce maternal and perinatal mortality, the utilization rate is low. To maximize the use of MWH, policymakers must be aware of the barriers and benefits of using MWH. This review aimed to describe the evidence on the barriers and benefits to access and use of MWHs in Ethiopi...
Article
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Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite (PfSPZ) direct venous inoculation (DVI) using cryopreserved, infectious PfSPZ (PfSPZ Challenge [Sanaria, Rockville, Maryland]) is an established controlled human malaria infection model. However, to evaluate new chemical entities with potential blood-stage activity, more detailed data are needed on safety, tolerabil...
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e12503 Background: Breast cancer mortality has decreased by almost 40% since the 1980s in high-income countries. However, this trend is not paralleled in low-income countries, where poor outcomes are consistently reported, thus making it a significant public health consideration. Moreover, the lack of cancer registries in these countries makes it d...
Article
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In Africa, children aged 5 to 15 years (school age) comprises more than 50% (>339 million) of the under 19 years population, and are highly burdened by malaria and anaemia that impair cognitive development. For the prospects of improving health in African citizens, understanding malaria and its relation to anaemia in school-aged children, it is cru...
Article
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Since the largest Ebola outbreak in West Africa (2013–2016) highlighted the potential threat of the Ebola virus to the world, several vaccines have been under development by different pharmaceutical companies. To obtain vaccine licensure, vaccine trials assessing the safety, immunogenicity and efficacy of new vaccines among different populations (e...
Article
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Introduction Family planning knowledge is poor and use is low in Ugandan fishing communities. We compared the effectiveness of enhanced family planning (FP) education with routine counselling on FP knowledge and use. Methods Individuals aged 15–49 years were randomly assigned to intervention or control arm. The intervention constituted enhanced FP...
Preprint
Full-text available
Introduction The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the second most malaria-affected country globally with 21,608,681 cases reported in 2019. The Kongo Central (KC) Province has a malaria annual incidence of 163 cases/per 1000 inhabitants which are close to the national average of 153.4/1000. However, the malaria prevalence varies both between a...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Despite an improvement in the healthcare system, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Improving knowledge is a key for behavioral change towards prevention of CVDs. However, up-to-date evidence is limited on the effect of interventions on CVD knowledge. Thus this study aimed to s...
Article
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Background Malaria in pregnancy can result in placental infection with fetal implications. This study aimed at assessing placental malaria (PM) prevalence and its associated factors in a cohort of pregnant women with peripheral malaria and their offspring. Method The data were collected in the framework of a clinical trial on treatments for malari...
Article
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Preventive chemotherapy (PC), the main strategy recommended by the World Health Organization to eliminate soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) and schistosomiasis (SCH), should be strengthened through identification of the remaining SCH transmission foci and evaluating its impact to get a lesson. This study was aimed to assess the prevalence of STH...
Preprint
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Background Malaria molecular surveillance has great potential to support local national malaria control programs (NMCPs) to inform policy for malaria control and elimination. Molecular markers associated with drug resistance are good predictors of treatment responses. In addition, molecular detection of deletions in hrp2 and hrp3 genes are indicati...
Preprint
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Background The rural community in Ethiopia is scattered over a wide geographic area, some regions with difficult mountains, making access to healthcare facilities a great challenge. To overcome geographical barriers and improve access to skilled childbirth care, maternity waiting homes (MWHs), shelters built nearby health facilities, where pregnant...
Article
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Background Despite the growing evidence that malaria and anaemia are two interlinked health problems of school-aged children (SAC) in developing countries, there is scarce information about malaria among SAC in Ethiopia. Moreover, anaemia-related studies were more concentrated in easily accessible areas. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of...
Preprint
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Background: In low- and middle-income countries, considerable proportions of women and newborns are dying from easily preventable pregnancy and childbirth-related causes. The utilisation of maternal health care (MHC) is a proven intervention that significantly reduces maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality. Despite efforts to make MHC availab...
Article
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Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally. Despite preventive community-based interventions (CBIs) seem efficacious in reducing CVD risks, a comprehensive up-to-date synthesis on the effectiveness of such interventions in improving physical activity (PA) is lacking. We performed a systematic review an...
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Introduction This article describes the protocol of an Ebola vaccine clinical trial which investigates the safety and immunogenicity of a two-dose prophylactic Ebola vaccine regimen comprised of two Ebola vaccines (Ad26.ZEBOV and MVA-BN-Filo) administered 56 days apart, followed by a booster vaccination with Ad26.ZEBOV offered at either 1 year or 2...
Article
Introduction The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends adherence to its surgical safety checklist (SSC) to optimize patient safety and reduce cesarean surgical site infection (SSI). Educational interventions combined with audit and feedback mechanisms on the checklist use by clinicians have the potential to improve adherence and clinical outco...
Article
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Background: Democratic Republic of Congo has shifted from pan test to mono-specific malaria RDT tests. A new Histidine rich protein 2 (HRP2)-based Rapid Diagnostic Tests for malaria diagnosis was then implemented. Objective: This study evaluated the performances of this new diagnostic tool compared to the thick smear as the gold standard. Method: T...