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May 2012

ARROW Trial closure

All participants will move to national HIV care programmes between April and June 2012. Careful and responsible closure has been an important consideration, with plans put in place to ensure that participants can continue to access antiretroviral (ARV) drugs after the study.

The governments of Uganda and Zimbabwe pledged to provide access to ARV drugs for ARROW participants after the trial finishes. Around 800 participants are based in Uganda and around 400 participants are based in Zimbabwe.

National care programmes for ARROW participants

Entebbe, Uganda

The Medical Research Council (MRC) unit in Entebbe runs the ARROW clinic, which is based at Entebbe Hospital. Patients enrolled here will move to the national program and will have access to a clinic at MildMay.

Kampala, Uganda

There are two ARROW clinics in Kampala, at the Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) and the Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation (Paediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic - PIDC). JCRC patients will either remain at the centre or will move to an alternative clinic if requested. PIDC patients will be treated at the Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation Clinic or at an alternative clinic if requested.

Harare, Zimbabwe

The ARROW clinic in Zimbabwe is located at the University of Zimbabwe Clinical Research Centre (UZ-CRC) at the Parirenyatwa Hospital. Patients enrolled here will be move to clinics at the Parirenyatwa Family Care Centre or Harare Hospital.



November 2010

Evidence 4 Action (EFA) has published 3 ARROW case studies
  1. Improving children’s access to research participation in poorly resourced communities
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  2. Use of scored tablets of first line antiretroviral drugs in HIV-infected children in resource limited settings: Experiences from the ARROW Clinical trial
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  3. Tablets are more acceptable and give fewer problems than syrups among young HIV-infected children in resource-limited settings in the ARROW trial
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See the EFA website for further details: http://www.evidence4action.org/



July 2009

DART results at IAS 2009

The DART (Development of AntiRetroviral Therapy in Africa) trial, which compared the same monitoring strategies in adults as ARROW does in children ended in late 2008. The results of the DART trial were presented at the 5th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Cape Town, 19-22 July 2009.

See the DART trial website for further details: http://www.ctu.mrc.ac.uk/dart/



February 2009

ARROW completes enrolment

ARROW reached its enrolment target of 1200 children in September 2008. A total of 1207 children have been enrolled and follow up is planned to continue to March 2012. Total numbers of children enrolled at each site are as follows:

Joint Clinical Research Centre, Uganda – 318
University of Zimbabwe – 400
MRC/UVRI Entebbe, Uganda – 188
Paediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic, Uganda - 301



November 2007

Successful enrolments for ARROW

The trial steering committee, the group that oversees and supervises the running of ARROW are pleased to announce that on the 15th March 2007 ARROW successfully enrolled its first child at the Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC), Kampala, Uganda.

As of 1st November 2007, a total of 328 children had been enrolled. Further updates will be posted regularly.