MPH Biographies

Professor Bob Snow

Bob has worked in Africa since 1984. He is Professor of Tropical Public Health at the University of Oxford and directs the MPH in Nairobi. His work began with the first clinical trials of Insecticide-treated bed nets in The Gambia and he has since developed a large programme of work in Kenya on the public health burden of malaria in Africa and understanding ways in which this can be reduced through scientifically proven methods of intervention, effective partnerships with African governments and appropriate financing. He has published over 350 articles on malaria, is a technical advisor to the Kenyan Government and sits on a number of international malaria advisory panels. He is supported by the Wellcome Trust (UK) as a Principal Fellow and was made a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2008.

 

Catherine Goreti Okoch

Catherine holds diplomas in Business Management and ICT from the Kenya Institute of Management and City & Guilds respectively. She began her career in 2009 as a Finance and Administration manager at the Centre for Heritage Development in Africa (CHDA) a non-profit organization . In July 2011 she joined Mondeas Limited a media company as an Administrative Coordinator. She joined MPH in April 2012 as the Personal Assistant to Professor Bob Snow and provides wider administrative support to the MPH group, she is currently the senior administrative assistant to the cluster.

 

MPH: Malaria Epidemiology, Health Impact and Policy  

Dr. Abdisalan Mohamed Noor

Abdisalan Mohamed Noor (known as Noor) graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Surveying from the University of Nairobi in 1999. Following a GIS internship at the International Research on Livestock Institute he joined the MPH in 2000 and was involved in developing a spatial infrastructure of health services in Kenya. He completed his PhD on spatial models of access to and use of government health services in Kenya in 2005 with the Open University, UK and the University of Oxford. He was awarded a Wellcome Trust Research Training fellowship in 2007 to investigate the spatial and socio-economic determinants of access to and use of health interventions among rural African communities, particularly understanding and modelling the dynamics of insecticide treated net uptake. Noor is an honorary lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Department of Geospatial Engineering & Space Technology, Technical Advisor the Kenyan Government’s National Malaria Control Programme and supports other Ministries of Health in the region notably in Somalia, Djibouti and Northern Sudan. In 2009 Noor was awarded one of the most prestigious regional science awards, the African Union Young Scientist of the Year award. Noor’s research interests now include new important elements of changing malaria risk in Africa – the definition, measurement and spatial modeling of malaria risk in areas of exceptionally low transmission. For this work Noor was awarded a five-year Intermediary Fellowship by the Wellcome Trust UK in 2010. He is currently the head of the geo-spatial modeling unit of MPH, an honorary Visiting Fellow at the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford and serves on the KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Research Programme’s Executive Strategic Development Committee. He is currently the Chairman, National Council for Population & Development.

Dr. Emelda Aluoch Okiro

Emelda graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry and Biochemistry from Egerton University, Kenya in 2001 and joined KEMRI-Wellcome Trust-Kilifi Unit the same year as a research assistant involved in a large field epidemiological project studying various aspects of RSV infection. Emelda completed her PhD in 2007 from the Open University, UK, and the University of Warwick on infectious disease epidemiology examining the transmission dynamics of RSV infection, in particular the characterization of patterns of infection of this virus and associated disease within the community. Emelda joined the MPHEG in 2007 with a specific interest in developing research questions related to measuring the spatial and temporal heterogeneity in P. falciparum risk and how this relates to global malaria disease burdens. In 2008 she was awarded a Wellcome Trust Research Training fellowship to study the changing clinical epidemiology of malaria in East Africa. Her interests continue to be anchored in measuring the impact of scaled malaria control with the best possible statistical techniques and supporting regional Ministries of Health. In 2011 Emelda won a prestigious fellowship to spend a year at the Institute of Health Metrics, University of Washington, Seattle. Emelda is head of the Epidemiological Impact & Surveillance Unit  of MPH examining the clinical malaria epidemiological transition in Africa and is an Honorary Fellow of Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford and serves on the programmes Higher Degree Committee (HDC).

Dr. Judy A Omumbo

Judy holds a Bachelor's degree in Dentistry (University of Nairobi) and an MPH (Hebrew University, Israel). She began her career in epidemiology working as part of the KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Collaborative Programme in Kenya. In 2002 she was awarded a Wellcome Prize studentship to undertake a DPhil at the University of Oxford in modelling the spatial risks of Plasmodium falciparum in East Africa. When she completed her DPhil in 2005 she moved to the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) in New York where she was an Associate Research Scientist with IRI's Africa Program until 2011. Her research interests continue to involve building the capacity of the health sector in Africa to use climate information effectively for decision-making in the control of climate sensitive diseases. Judy serves on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the World Wide Anti-malaria Resistance Network (wWARN) and the External Technical Advisory Group for AvecNet, a project on 'Targeting malaria by hitting the vector' that is led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and sponsored by the European Union. Judy was appointed in June 2012 to head the policy interface unit of the MPH malaria epidemiology work working with regional partners and national governments.

Caroline W Kabaria

Caroline graduated with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Geomatic Engineering from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) in 2006, and holds a Masters in Environmental Planning and Management from the University of Nairobi. She has been involved in various GIS projects at the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) and establishing Roads network database at Gath Consulting Engineers. She joined MPH in August 2007 as a research assistant and has been involved in the mapping of Anopheles vector distributions globally as well as database assembly for mapping of malaria prevalence for Africa. She is currently pursuing an Open University PhD examining the effects of changing patterns of urbanization on malaria transmission in Africa over the last 100 years.

Victor A Alegana

Victor graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Surveying from the University of Nairobi in 2006. He immediately joined MPH as a research intern and later as a research assistant working on various projects with application to GIS, developing spatial databases of health facilities in Kenya, malaria and fever prevalence in Somalia amongst others. He was awarded a Wellcome Trust Masters fellowship in 2009 to study applied GIS (health) and remote sensing at the School of Geography, University of Southampton. His interests include applied spatial epidemiology and model based approaches in disease mapping, the application of remotely sensed data in health and participatory web-based health GIS (PPGIS) platforms. He recently won a Commonwealth Fellowship to pursue a PhD supervised between MPH and the University of Southampton to explore optimized ways of defining Health Information System (HMIS) data to define malaria incidence in low transmission setings.

Deepa Pindolia

Deepa graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Business Mathematics and Statistics from the London School of Economics in 2007 and following research statistical internships at UN HABITAT and the University of Washington’s HIV projects in Kenya, gained interest in statistical and mathematical modeling of infectious diseases. In October 2009 she completed an MSc in Modern Epidemiology from Imperial College London and joined MPH in January 2010. She is currently undertaking a co-supervised PhD between MPH and the University of Florida to develop data sets and models of human population movement in relation to the threats posed by human migration and mobility on malaria elimination ambitions in the African countries.

Damaris Kinyoki

Damaris graduated from the Egerton University in 2006 with a BSc in Biomedical Science and Technology. She completed an MPH in 2009 and MSc in Medical statistics in 2011 at the University of Nairobi. She began her career as a research assistant with United Nations Children's Fund in 2006 and later joined United Nations Environment Programme in 2008 as a research Analyst. In 2011 she joined MPH as a research officer in GIS and Medical statistics. She is involved in assembling data on malaria and under nutrition in Somalia and statistical analysis to investigate the association between malaria and poor nutrition, and provide evidence to international agencies tasked to respond to the dual emergencies of disease and famine in Somalia. Damaris’ research interest is in Bayesian geostatistical methods to explore risk factors for under-nutrition and anemia in Somalia and will expand these research themes to support a PhD thesis in 2013.

Clara Mundia

Clara holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science/Biology from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and obtained her MSc in Geography and Environmental Resources in 2010 from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, USA. While in the USA, she worked as an environmental intern and volunteer for government and non-profit organizations participating in the development of environmental education programs as well as recycling and cleanup activities. She joined MPH in October 2011 as a GIS research officer working on projects related to the historical distributions of malaria in Africa, traveling to regional and international library archives for data collection and developing GIS applied products for the group.

Punam Amratia

Punam graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics and Economics from the University of Warwick in 2009. During her final years, she concentrated her studies towards medical statistics and mathematical biology - population dynamic models; volunteering to work with clinical data at the Aga Khan hospital in December 2008. In October 2010 she completed an MSc in Modern Epidemiology at Imperial College London. She joined  MPH in January 2011 as a research officer working on the assembly of historical malaria data and descriptions of control in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

Viola A. Otieno

Viola graduated with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Computer Science from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) in 2011. She has been involved in various GIS and application development projects as an applications developer including projects for several Kenyan Local Authorities including County Council of Makueni and the Municipal Council of Nakuru. She joined MPH in May 2012 and is currently involved in a number of data analyses of malaria prevention intervention coverage regionally.

 

Jacob Ochieng

Jacob completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in Geography at Moi University in 2007. He then worked with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and briefly with KEMRI-CDC in Kisumu. Jacob joined MPH in September 2011 as an Assistant Research Officer, specializing in GIS, after completing a research internship at the African Population and Health Research Center. His major interests areas are spatial epidemiology, spatial analysis and the application Of GIS and remote sensing in health research. Jacob currently works on a project mapping the locations of health facilities and the health work force in Kenya.

MPH: Malaria Case-Management & Drug Resistance

Dr. Ambrose O. Talisuna

Ambrose completed his medical degree at Makerere University in 1992 and his Masters in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1996. He was awarded a PhD from the University of Antwerp and Institute of Tropical Medicine for his work on intensity of transmission and spread of antimalaria drug resistance in 2004. Between 1996 and 2011 Ambrose held senior positions within the Ugandan Ministry of Health, the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and was the field coordinator for the multi-country malaria clinical trial supported by the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP). He received a senior fellowship in 2007 from EDCTP to conduct a capacity strengthening project for pharmacovigilance of antimalarial drugs in Africa. He sits on several international advisory boards including the international Ethical Review Board of Médecins Sans Frontières, the World Health Organization and is a permanent member of the Global Fund Technical Review Panel. His work on drug resistance surveillance over the last 15 years has shaped malaria treatment policy in Africa which was recognized in a special profile in Lancet, 2010, 375:1428. Ambrose joined the MPH in 2011 as the Regional Scientific Director, World Wide Antimalaria Resistance Network (wWARN) for East Africa and leads this initiative to build the regional capacity and science behind the epidemiology of antimalarial drug resistance. Ambrose holds an appointment at the University of Oxford and heads the unit on Drug & Case-management surveillance unit of the MPH.

Dr. Rachael Ochola

Rachel graduated from the University of London (University College London) in 1993 with a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry. She completed an MSc in 1997 in Medical Microbiology from the University of British Columbia and a PhD from Open University in collaboration with Birmingham University in 2008. In 2010 she obtained a Graduate Certificate in Emerging Infectious Disease Epidemiology from the University of Iowa, USA. She began her career as a graduate research assistant with Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia in 1994, and later joined Nairobi Hospital and International Medical for a short spell, before joining KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi as a graduate research officer in the Respiratory Syncytial Group in 2001.She went on to work at the KEMRI/US Army Medical Research Unit-Kenya as a senior research officer in 2008 for 2 years and then moved to KEMRI/Centers for Disease and Prevention Collaborative Programme in 2010 as an Epidemiologist/Influenza program head-Kisumu. She has now re- joined the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust as the East Africa Regional Liaison Scientist in the WWARN program.

Dr. Dejan Zurovac

Dejan is an epidemiologist within Malaria Public Health and Epidemiology Group at KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Nairobi, Kenya. Since 1997 he has been working in several African countries as medical doctor, health programme manager and researcher monitoring and evaluating translation of malaria case-management policies into practice. His current research interest is on the use of mobile phones to improve health workers’ adherence to malaria guidelines, patients’ adherence to treatments, and availability of medicines at rural health facilities. Dejan is affiliated to the University of Oxford (UK), Boston University (US), and is also a technical advisor to the Kenyan Government’s Division of Malaria Control.

Dr. Sophie Githinji

Sophie completed her first degree in Education and completed a Masters in Population Geography at Kenyatta University in 2002. She was involved in evaluation of community development projects for two years before being awarded a scholarship by the Katholischer Akademischer Ausländer-Dienst (KAAD) to pursue her PhD studies at the Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitaet Bonn, Germany in 2006. Her PhD work focused on human ecology and disease models in the study of  behavioral, socioeconomic and micro ecological factors associated with malaria in south Kisii district, Kenya. She was awarded her PhD in 2009. Sophia joined MPEHG in March 2010 on a one year Post Doc internship programme working on a variety of quantitative analyses related to malaria case-management in Kenya and Sudan. She was appointed to a research scientist position in February 2011 and has developed a series of studies to investigate the applications of SMS text messaging for effective diagnostic and anti-malarial drug management supply in conjunction with the Kenyan Ministry of Health.

Gabriel Otieno Okello

Gabriel graduated with a B.Ed Sc. (Hons) in Double Mathematics (Statistics Option) from Egerton University in 2007, and currently undertaking a Masters in Biometry (Biostatistics) from the University of Nairobi. He has worked for Barclays Bank of Kenya as a data manager  and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) of the University of Nairobi as a research assistant. He joined ICIPE as a Graduate Fellow attached to the biostatistics unit in 2001. Gabriel is a Member of the International Biometric Society (IBS).He joined MPHEG in June, 2012 working under the malaria case management cluster.

MPH: Vector Public Health (Vectors and Insecticide Resistance)

Dr Charles Mbogo                                                                                                                        

Charles is a public health entomologist with over 20 years’ experience in the conduct of entomological studies in Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea. His focus has been the study of malaria vectors and has worked on the large-scale evaluation of insecticide-treated bednets, insecticide resistance, and integrated vector management (IVM) strategies.  Charles has developed and implemented vector surveillance systems at local and national scales. Charles serves on various national and international technical committees. He maintains a keen interest in translating research into policy and practice and played an important role in the formulation of national policy on IVM. He is the current President of the Pan African Mosquito Control Association (PAMCA), an association of African entomology professionals dedicated to Improving human health through suppression of mosquitoes and mosquito borne diseases.

 Dr. Luna Kamau

Luna holds a PhD in Molecular Entomology from Kenyatta University and a Diploma in Leadership and Management for Strathmore University and is currently a Principal Research Officer and Head of the Biotechnology Research Programme at the Kenya Medical Research Institute, KEMRI.  She has extensive experience in biomedical research in different aspects of vector biology including population genetics, insecticide resistance and vector ecology. In 2008, Luna was appointed as a Young Affiliate member of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, TWAS. She is a member of the Pan African Mosquito Control Association (PAMCA), Kenyan Chapter and a member of the interim organizing committee.

Dr. Joseph Mwangangi

Joseph Mwangangi graduated with BSc (Zoology, Botany and Geography) from Kenyatta University in 1997. He joined KEMRI in 1998. Mwangangi graduated with PhD degree in Medical Entomology from Kenyatta University in 2007. His research interest is in malaria vector biology and ecology, novel approaches to the control of vector borne diseases and the monitoring of insecticide resistance. His current research interests include IVM within a community based model, empowering communities and public health stakeholders in disease control. He is TWAS Young Affiliate Fellow for Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) and the TWAS Regional Office for Sub-Saharan Africa (TWAS-ROSSA) for period 2011 - 2015. He is an Official for the PAMCA, Kenyan Chapter and member of coordinating committee for PAMCA.

Damaris Matoke Muhia

Damaris holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry and Masters in Biotechnology from the University of Mysore, India. Currently she is pursuing a PhD in Molecular Medicine with Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. Her PhD work focuses on population genetics and insecticide resistance of malaria vectors in Western Kenya. Damaris joined KEMRI, Centre for Biotechnology Research and Development, Molecular Entomology laboratory in the year 2006 as an Assistant Research Officer and later as a Research Officer within the same department. She is involved in various projects encompassing monitoring of insecticide resistance, mapping of malaria vectors and studying of behavior changes of mosquitoes in relation to vector control systems in Kenya. Damaris is a member of the Pan African Mosquito Control Association (PAMCA)

MPH Research Units

See MPH Organogram here.

Spatial epidemiology unit: Head, Dr Abdisalan M Noor

• Mapping 100 years of changing intensity of P. falciparum transmission in Africa

• Developing novel methods to map the risks of P. falciparum infections in areas of low transmission intensity using combinations of community and facility-based data

• New methods to estimating malaria intervention coverage from sparse point data from multiple sources to inform sub-national health decision making

• Mapping the risks of malnutrition and coincidence with malaria and human resilience in Africa

• Modeling and mapping the seasonality of clinical malaria in Africa as new tools for national malaria control programmes

• Mapping the changing spatial distributions of Plasmodium malariae in Africa

• The temporal effects of urbanization on P. falciparum prevalence in Africa since 1960

• Quantifying the threats posed by human population movement to malaria elimination and control with special reference to three regions: African Islands, North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula

• Estimating the malaria burden and coverage of prevention among African pregnant women

• Improving malaria case-detection and hot-spot surveillance in the Republic of Sudan, Djibouti and Kenya

• Revisiting the malaria selection hypothesis of sickle cell trait in East Africa using receptive endemicity

• Reviewing the pathways from control to elimination on the Arabian Peninsula: challenges for a malaria free peninsula

• Modeling the threats and challenges to malaria elimination in Jazan Province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Vector Public Health Unit: Head, Dr Charles Mbogo

• Insecticide resistance monitoring in Western & Nyanza provinces

• Integrated Vector Management in urban settings

• National malaria vector surveillance

• Vector database assembly and time-space modeling: East & Southern Africa

Epidemiological impact & surveillance unit: Head, Dr Emelda Okiro

• The impact of changing malaria transmission on all-cause child mortality in Africa 1970-2010

• The role of malaria and its control in the spatial and temporal patterns of child survival in East Africa

• Monitoring the changing clinical epidemiology of hospitalized paediatric malaria in Kenya, Uganda and Malawi

Policy impact unit: Head, Dr Judy Omumbo

• Understanding how malaria maps, data and indicators are used by national governments in Africa: qualitative and quantitative studies

• Developing digital archives of malaria control information at health decision making units across Africa

• Establishing regional information platforms and Repositories Open Access Data for malaria control and elimination

• Improving the use of national malaria information to guide and finance sub-national disease control: applying decision making tools to mapped data in ten countries

• The history of pre-RBM malaria control with special reference to chemoprophylaxis and implications for current drug-based prevention policies in Africa

Drug & Case-management surveillance unit: Head, Dr Ambrose Talisuna

• Monitoring the implementation and effectiveness of new parasite-based diagnosis out-patient malaria case management guidelines in Kenya

• The operational impact of SMS technologies to improve drug management and commodity supplies and health information reporting in Kenya

• Clinical trials of the effectiveness of SMS reminders on patients’ adherence to antimalarial treatments and post-treatment review

• The effectiveness of SMS based reporting of adverse drug events and quality of medicines

• Developing spatial risk analysis models to provide insights into high level hot-spot analysis for future surveillance programs in Africa.

• Pilot studies of pragmatic early warning and detection systems for emerging artemisinin resistance in East Africa

• Factors affecting early parasitological response to ACTs in Africa: a) pooled analysis of individual patient data; b) trends of the parasite clearance profile for hospitalized patients with severe malaria receiving intravenous artesunate monotherapy; c) Monitoring trends of the parasite clearance profile and efficacy of ACTs in East Africa

Links with other clusters/groups: 

Over the next five years linkages are proposed between the health care financing and health information research themes within the HSSR cluster and the malnutrition interest groups within the Clinical Sciences cluster.

Childhood illness

Large-scale studies of paediatric admissions are helping to clarify the spectrum of diseases affecting young children in Kilifi, and pointing the way to improved treatments for the severely ill.

The KEMRI-Wellcome Programme is closely linked to Kilifi District Hospital, which sees more than 5000 paediatric admissions a year. This link provides the basis for a comprehensive clinical surveillance system and underpins the Programme's activities into severe childhood illnesses. Although the children's ward is run and maintained by the District Hospital, extra staffing and resources come via the Programme.

Intensive studies of severely ill children are carried out in a separate well-equipped high-dependency unit. Clinical studies provide a clear description of the nature and importance of life-threatening syndromes within the context of a rural African hospital. The high-dependency unit also provides facilities for sophisticated research to be carried out safely, and has been selected for multi-centre clinical trials.

One of the earliest and most substantial pieces of work carried out at Kilifi was a landmark series of studies mapping out local patterns of disease - an area that, somewhat surprisingly, was not well researched in the African context.

 

Clinical Trials Facility

Clinical Trials Facility building

The Clinical Trials Facility (CTF) of the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme was set up in 2007 to provide a global standard trial centre within the collaborative programme. Based in Kilifi, our role is to work from the point of setting the research question through to analysis and reporting to help ensure all trials run at the unit meet International quality standard. The core aim of using this facility is to enhance the way trials are organised, as an optimum environment for developing highly skilled African trialists.

We have an in-house monitoring team that is trained and with membership to the Institute of Clinical Research and/or Association of Clinical Research Professionals. These are assigned to monitor specific trials. Monitoring ensures all trials comply with ICH-GCP and are thereby being conducted to high ethical standards whilst collecting high quality data.

Some of our trials are externally sponsored and so also receive external monitoring visits from the sponsors. Others are fully in-house trials and for these our monitors provide full cover.

At the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust facility in Kilifi, clinical trials conducted through the Clinical Trial Facility benefit operationally from the following:

• Support, guidance and scientific input from the point of setting the question and trial design to the final report.
• Project management, financial administration and trial coordination
• Full range of in-house SOPs and SOP writing to adapt to sponsor/protocol requirements.
• Centralized budget, staff and resource management
• Fully integrated clinical trial laboratory and coordination with other KEMRI laboratories and clinical services
• Planning and coordination of community engagement and wider communication planning with the units Social and Behavioral Research Group
• A DSS mapped catchment area for the district hospital
• Full data management and statistical support as needed
• Trial monitoring and quality management, regulatory support and safety reporting.

Neuroscience

Using electrodes to record electrical activity of the brain for diagnosis of epilepsyThe Neuroscience programme in Kilifi, Kenya aims to investigate the causes, the consequences and burden of neurological conditions in a rural tropical area, mainly affecting children. Children with neurological conditions are assessed, either on admission to hospital, after discharge from hospital or in epidemiological surveys in the community.

Clinical pathophysiology studies are conducted on children admitted with acute seizures, malaria, bacterial meningitis and neonatal conditions such as sepsis, jaundice and tetanus. Outpatients with HIV infection and epilepsy are studied. Further studies on the genetic susceptibility and immunological basis of these conditions are determined. The neurocognitive consequences of these conditions are assessed by cultural appropriate psychological assessment and event related potentials. The follow up of cohorts of children with these conditions and epidemiological surveys allow us to assess the burden of neurological conditions in this community.

Specific studies include

• Case control study of children admitted with acute seizures
• Randomised control trial of fosphenytoin to prevent seizures in children admitted with an acute encephalopathy
• Use of adjunctive therapy such as albumin, pentoxifylline and magnesium sulphate in children admitted with cerebral malaria
• Role of neuronal antibodies in causing seizures
• Role of viruses causing encephalopathies in children admitted to rural hospitals in Africa
• Diagnosis and outcome of bacterial meningitis in district hospitals
• Causes and consequences of neonatal jaundice
• Risk factors and role of magnesium sulphate in the neonatal tetanus
• Causes and consequences of neonatal sepsis
• Pattern of neuro-cognitive involvement in children infected with HIV
• Neuro-cognitive outcome of children admitted with severe malaria, pneumococcal meningitis and acute encephalopathies
• Role of event related potential (ERP) in assessing brain damage following malaria, bacterial meningitis and other acute encephalopathies
• Role of ERPs in HIV encephalopathy in children
• Prevelance and risk factors of neurological impairment in children
• Prevalence, incidence and mortality of epilepsy in adults and older children

 

Health Services Research Group (HSRG)

The Health Services Research Group has evolved from the Child and Newborn Health Group and spans a multi-disciplinary team based in Nairobi that has close links to the Ministry of Medical Services, The Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, the University of Nairobi, College of Health Sciences and the Kenya Paediatric Association.

In 2011 a formal Memorandum of Understanding to underpin and guide joint research and capacity development was signed by the KEMRI-WTRP, the Ministry of Medical Services and the University of Nairobi, College of Health Sciences, creating the Health Services, Implementation Research and Clinical Excellence (SIRCLE) Collaboration.

The KEMRI-WTRP’s Health Services Research Group is the main programme partner in this collaboration based on its work in a number of areas including:

•  Evidence synthesis, guideline development (using GRADE) and knowledge translation research: idoc-Africa, Child Health Evidence Week 2010 and key references: Agweyu, Musila, English, Opiyo.
• Conduct of pragmatic clinical trials to inform decisions on national treatment policies
• Development of health worker job aides and training courses that promote uptake of evidence-based practices in paediatric and newborn care. This work has seen the widespread adoption of guideline booklets in Kenya and rapidly expanding use of the Emergency Triage, Assessment and Training plus Admission  Care course (ETAT+) in undergraduate, post-graduate training and in-service training in Kenya and now in Rwanda and Uganda. ETAT+: RCPCH project: key references: Irimu, English.
• Development of methods to improve hospital inpatient information systems, promote uptake and value of hospital audit and assess quality of hospital care
• Evaluation, using a cluster randomized controlled trial, of a multifaceted intervention to improve paediatric care in Kenyan hospitals. key references: Ayieko; Gathara
• Use of qualitative methods to understand the influences of context on implementation success and barriers to adoption of best practices, key references: Mbindyo, Nzinga, English, and emerging work on clinical management and leadership
• Economic evaluation of interventions in the Kenyan context, key references: Akumu, Barasa.
• Human Resources for Health research, key references: Mbindyo, Blaauw, with emerging work on absenteeism and health worker distribution at a national scale.

Collaborators:

• University of Nairobi
• Ministry of Medical Services / Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation
• University of Witswatersrand
• University of Cape Town
• London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
• University of Oxford
• Warwick University
• WHO-Geneva and WHO-Kenya
• Kenya Paediatric Association

        

Top Image: Participants at the Child Health Evidence week 2010, L-R: The 2010 National Paediatric Guidelines produced after the Child Health Evidence Week, The training team at the start of the Mulifaceted Intervention Research Study and A Hospital Nurse being trained in 'best-practice' care and use of national guidelines.