children

With the onset of a rapidly changing malaria risk pattern in many parts of Kenya it has become important to establish reliable information on the changes in the epidemiology of disease presenting to health facilities and hospitals. Routine data are inadequate to describe a changing clinical epidemiology, subject as they are to vagaries of incomplete data and poor diagnostics. Prospective hospital and clinic surveillance systems using simplified screening tools, universal parasitological investigations and modern information transfer technology are required. These will be established at various sites across Kenya in collaboration with national research partners between 2010 and 2015.

This project involves taking forward an ambitious research agenda with partners in Kenya's Ministry of Health, its medical schools and international collaborators including the World Health Organisation, The Centre for Health Policy, University of Witswatersrand and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Research is framed around a 3 year, randomised controlled study of an intervention programme to introduce evidence based care in child and newborn health in government hospitals and involves a multidisciplinary team comprising medical researchers, social scientists and economists.