Scott Heysell, MD, MPH, Earns $3.3 Million U01 Grant for Multi-PI Sepsis Study in Tanzania and Uganda

Backed by a new National Institutes of Health U01 grant for $3.3 million, UVA and collaborating investigators from Tanzania and Uganda will lead a multi-country, randomized controlled trial to prevent death from sepsis. Sepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction due to a dysregulated host response to infection, and it is the leading cause of global mortality. Despite the World Health Organization declaring sepsis a global priority, little is known about sepsis in the global South and specifically sub-Saharan Africa where there are an estimated 17 million cases and 3.5 million deaths from sepsis per year. The majority of these patients are living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

At UVA Health and in other parts of the U.S., sepsis may caused by a urinary tract infection, such from the common bacteria E. coli that makes it’s way into the bloodstream. In a major trial recently completed by the UVA-led team, the investigators found that the leading cause of sepsis in the East Africa region is tuberculosis (TB), which was responsible for over half of the cases of sepsis and is the leading cause of infection in the blood. This is remarkable as TB is usually a chronic infection of the lungs, but in the completed trial sepsis was causing a high rate of death within a few days of presentation if it was not detected early and treated with specific TB medicines. The new U01 award will support a randomized controlled trial in people presenting with severe sepsis to hospitals in Uganda and Tanzania to determine if immediate treatment with an enhanced antibiotic regimen that includes TB medicines, and if additional treatment with corticosteroids to dampen a dysregulated immune response will further improve survival.

Lead trial investigators from UVA include Scott Heysell, MD, professor of medicine and director of UVA’s Center for Global Health Equity; Christopher Moore, MD, professor of medicine; Tania Thomas, MD, associate professor of medicine and expert in HIV, TB and sepsis immunology; Jeff Sturek, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine; and biostastistics professor Mark Conaway, PhD. Lead East African investigators include UVA visiting research scholars Stellah Mpagama, MD, PhD, director of research and innovation at Kibong’oto Infectious Diseases Hospital, Tanzania and Edwin Nuwagira, MMed, lecturer and research scientist at Mbarara University of Science Technology, Uganda.

Filed Under: Research