Photo: suppliedUniversity of Otago researchers are helping lead an $18 million international project to clarify the main causes of fever in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia and determine how they should be treated. The international researchers believe that new treatment protocols, to be developed through the project, will have the potential to safely reduce prescription of antimicrobial drugs and improve patient care. "By studying outpatients we can look at who needs antimicrobial drugs and from whom they can safely be withheld," he said. The aim is to reveal how fever is treated at health facilities at a local level, including the use of antimicrobial drugs. FIEBRE will also see the development of the first bank of biomedical samples collected from a large group of fever patients from diverse settings in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

Source: Otago Daily Times March 08, 2018 21:56 UTC