News

First freeBILy results published! April 2024 – The well-being of women has a direct impact on other people, societies and the countries where they live. Improving women’s health will create a better world for all, treating pregnant women for schistosomiasis in...

EDCTP Forum Paris Development of a CAA/CCA duplex test for improved diagnosis of human schistosomiasis Paris, November 2023 – On behalf of the freeBILy consortium, Pytsje Hoekstra presented results on the development of a CCA/CAA duplex test, changing schistosomiasis...

The challenge of schistosomiasis treatment in young children and pregnant women – example of freeBILy Utrecht, November 2023 – freeBILy partners joined the European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health (ECTMIH) held in Utrecht to present results from...

The freeBILy consortium held its final annual meeting in Barcelona, Spain, from 19-21 Sept 2022. The main objective of the freeBILy project is to implement and evaluate the effectivity of two well-researched circulating antigen tests to improve diagnosis in endemic...

A comprehensive overview of the freeBILy project was recently published in Acta Tropica. The full publication can be found here. Furthermore, details of the clinical trials in Gabon and Madagascar have been published.

The second freeBILy consortium annual meeting was held at the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar from 11 to 13 March 2020. The meeting was attended by representatives from all consortium partners. After a word of welcome from our Madagascan partners prof....

The joint effort of the freeBILy team in Madagascar has led to the finalization of the recruitment as of 5 February 2020. A total of 5203 women accepted to be part of the study. Women were recruited thanks to our great field team consisting of our 25 nurses and...

An update from Gabon: from traveling to the field sites and recruiting pregnant women in the field to testing urine samples with different diagnostic tests in the laboratory at CERMEL, Lambaréné.

The recruitment of the first study participants for the freeBILy trials in Gabon and Madagascar has officially started. Enrolment of the first pregnant women started in Gabon in the middle of February and in Madagascar in the beginning of April. The start of...

Prior to the freeBILy annual meeting, a laboratory training at CERMEL was organized by the LUMC team, with the goal of implementing several diagnostic assays that will be used in the freeBILy project in Gabon and Madagascar. During this training, local technicians...

The freeBILy consortium annual meeting was held at the institute of our partner CERMEL, (Lambaréné, Gabon) from 14 to 15 February 2019. The meeting was attended by representatives from all consortium partners as well as invited guests from the Albert Schweitzer...

An important aspect of the freeBILy project is to provide capacity building and training opportunities for both African and European centres in helminth diagnostic techniques, applied epidemiology and mother-child public health interventions. The aim of Workpackage 3...

Currently, in both Gabon and Madagascar field sites are being prepared for the freeBILy study. Preparations include training of community health workers which is going to start Wednesday 21st of November 2018, for the Madagascar sites. In Madagascar, the project will...

From 17-21 September, members of the freeBILy consortium joined the Ninth European Development and Clinical Trial Partnership (EDCTP) Forum in Lisbon. During this meeting Dr Govert van Dam had the opportunity to introduce the freeBILy project and to discuss the...

Dr. Govert van Dam from Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) Leiden, The Netherlands, is the coordinator of the freeBILy consortium that received a grant of €3 million to conduct research aimed at improving the health of pregnant women, new-borns and...