Every year, more than a million children in sub-Saharan Africa die in hospital from severe infections, often within hours of arrival. The FEAST trial is testing whether a simple, cheap intervention—giving rapid fluid infusions at the moment of hospital admission—can cut those deaths. Currently, doctors rely on antimalarial and antimicrobial drugs, but most children die from complications before those treatments take effect. Supportive therapies like fluid infusion are standard in wealthy countries, but in African hospitals, clinicians often give little or no additional fluid because of uncertainty about its benefits. No large clinical trial has settled the question. If the trial shows that rapid fluid infusion improves survival, the change would be immediate and practical. Hospitals across sub-Saharan Africa could adopt the protocol at minimal cost, potentially saving thousands of young lives each year without new drugs or equipment. The research directly addresses a gap in evidence that has kept a low-cost, widely available treatment from being used where it is needed most.
View original technical description
FEAST trial is a large randomised controlled trial in African children with severe illness examining whether the addition of rapid fluid infusion at hospital admission to standard case management improves survival compared to standard management alone. In sub-Saharan Africa case fatality rates in hospital for severe infections in children remains at 15-30%. In this region well over a million children die of severe infection in hospital each year. Currently, antimalarial and antimicrobial drugs are the mainstay of treatment, however most deaths occur early, due to the complications of severe illness, and before definitive treatments have time to act. In this situation doctors have to rely upon supportive therapies to treat complications to try to improve outcome. Defining which are the best life-saving treatments has been frustrated by the lack of clinical studies. Rapid fluid infusion to correct fluid deficits is a standard supportive treatment and practised routinely for the emergency management of children with severe illness. Currently, reticence to adopt this approach remains and thus in African hospitals children are managed with little fluid or no additional fluid. If the benefits of rapid fluid infusion were shown, then FEAST trial could potentially save thousands of lives of young children annually.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know