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Dr Samson M Kinyanjui is one of the seven leading African researchers who are recipients of funding from the Wellcome Trust and the Department for International Development (DFID) to establish cutting-edge rese
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Invasive Salmonella infections in sub-Saharan Africa are a major cause of child illness and deaths, a new body of research into this usually overlooked infectious disease has revealed. In the West, Salmonella i
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Dr Samson M Kinyanjui is one of the seven leading African researchers who are recipients of funding from the Wellcome Trust and the Department for International Development (DFID) to establish cutting-edge rese
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Children living in Kenya are well protected from life-threatening infections such as meningitis, sepsis and pneumonia caused by the bacteria Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), by the existing three-dose vacci
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The research team from the Health Research Ethics and Community Liaison Groups in the KEMRI|Wellcome Trust Research Programme were recently involved in an international collaborative project on the ethics of sh
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The KEMRI|Wellcome Trust Research Programme scoops the 1st prize in the just completed ASK show in Mombasa This years Mombasa International Show was held on August 26- 30, where the KEMRI| Wellcome Trust Resear
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The Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine Protects Kenyan Children East African Regional Meeting on Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccines: Evidence to Policy 22nd-24th June 2015 Policy makers, experts and other stakeholders
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Initial results from the Phase 1 trials of the candidate Ebola vaccine rVSV ZEBOV suggest that the vaccine is safe and generates an immune response. The research, published in the New England Journal of Medicin
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Promising results from a recent vaccine clinical trial in Kenya raise new hope in the fight against malaria The development of a safe and effective malaria vaccine to reduce the intolerable burden that malaria
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Final results from a large-scale Phase III trial of the RTS,S malaria vaccine candidate, including the impact of a booster dose, published today in The Lancet, show that the vaccine candidate helped protect chi
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H.E The first lady Margaret Kenyatta on her tour to the Kilifi County hospital made a stopover and visited the KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme Laboratories where the team presented her with excerpts of
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The 10th International congress on tropical pediatrics got off to a good start on Sunday August 24th at the Kenyatta International Conference Center in Nairobi. The KEMRI- Wellcome Trust team provided updates o
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Trials of one of the most promising candidate Ebola vaccines are to begin swiftly in healthy volunteers in Europe, Gabon and Kenya, as funds from the Wellcome Trust enable an international consortium to acceler
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Africa is experiencing an overall decline in the risk of malaria infection that appears to have started before, but accelerated after, the massive scale up of interventions since the launch of the Roll Back Mal
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Jalemba Aluvaala was matriculated at the University of Oxford on the 12th of March 2015. Dr Aluvaala will be pursuing his DPhil in Clinical Medicine, a 4 year course that compliments on-going work in the Depa
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The 2014 award for the Global Research Nurses essay competition goes to one of our own, Patience Ndonye. Pepe as fondly known to us participated in the essay competition held in October last year and emerged th
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On the other side of research – The reflections of a trialist and two participants on the Ebola vaccine trial in Kilifi. Unlike the usual practice where researchers are the ones carrying out trials Sassy
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Incidence and risk factors for sexual assault among MSM and young women in Coastal Kenya The KEMRI Wellcome Trust Programme researchers have been for the past 10 years studying how rape among sex workers and me
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Researchers at the KEMRI| Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya, have started the human testing of a vaccine designed to protect against Ebola. The first dose of the VSV-Ebola vaccine was administe
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President Uhuru Kenyatta on a tour during his visit at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust complex in Kilifi in October 24th 2014. The president officially commissioned the Mbuyuni Training Complex at the KEMRI’s Ce
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This year’s Royal Society Pfizer Prize Award 2014 goes to our young researcher, Dr Faith Osier. This award is considered one of the most prestigious prizes and recognizes Faiths valuable and innovative c
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As part of our collaboration with Pwani University in building capacity for research we have jointly launched a new course designated Postgraduate Diploma in Research Methods. This course is modeled on the high
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Findings suggest vaccine will be effective in other low-income countries The introduction of a new pneumococcal vaccine in routine immunisation programmes in Kenya reduced levels of the pneumococcal bacterium i
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Nearly 7 million babies in the first month of life (neonates) required treatment for severe bacterial infection in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America in 2012, according to a new study published in
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Philip Bejon has been awarded the Chalmers Medal by the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, a leading UK based organisation that supports research into Global Health. This is awarded to researchers
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In this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, an international team of investigators based in Europe and Africa, report the results of a study to identify a gene expression signature for childhood tuber
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The Ministry of Health & County Hospitals have partnered in a collaborative project to support improved data collection and use of hospital data with KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research programme and the Kenya Pa
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Adults in Kilifi face a combined burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases, according to a report published in the Lancet Global Health. Infectious diseases were a major cause of illness among both men
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Researchers from the Programme featured on the “Podcasts from Africa†series by Wellcome Trust Centre for Molecular Parasitology at the University of Glasgow. Click here for details. Follow us on KE
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Infants are highly susceptible to severe pneumonia from a virus called respiratory syncytial virus or RSV. Identifying who infects infants with this virus is important in designing the best options for preven
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Despite unprecedented investment in malaria control in Africa over the past decade, about 57% of the population still live in areas where risk of infection remains moderate to high, according to new research pu
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Dr Faith Osier has been awarded the prestigious African Research Leader (ARL) Fellowship. The ARL Fellowship, is supported by The Medical Research Council, UK and the UK Department for International Development
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The Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine Impact Study (PCVIS) was set up to track the impact of the PCV10 vaccine on invasive pneumococcal disease. Working closely with the Ministry of Health, the project monitors va
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A team from the Department of International Development (DFID), based in Nairobi, met with Senior Managers at the KEMRI – Wellcome Trust Nairobi offices including the Executive Director, Prof. Philip Bejo
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Despite its discovery in Uganda in 1947 little is known about Zika virus (ZIKV) and its importance as a cause of illness in East Africa. Now, researchers at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Programme in Kilifi, Kenya a
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Professor Grace Irimu conducted an afternoon symposium for medical students who have just completed their final year exams and due to graduate next year. The symposium was held on the 19th of Nov 2015 at the
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The Ministry of Health and partners in child health marked the World Prematurity Day on the 17th of November 2015, at the Azure Royal Orchid Hotel in Westlands. Partners in child health met to discuss on pre-te
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The KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme was set up in 1989 with a primary focus on malaria research. Over the years the research programme has expanded and conducts wide-ranging research in various discipli
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GSK,s malaria candidate vaccine, MosquirixTM (RTS,S), receives positive opinion from European regulators for the prevention of malaria in young children in sub-Saharan Africa WHO will now assess how the world&#
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Sir Mark Walport, the previous director of the Wellcome Trust and currently the UK Governments Chief Scientific Advisor, visited the Nairobi KEMRI-Wellcome Trust offices on the 14th of July 2015 and held brief
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47 world leading UK researchers amongst them Prof Kath Maitland who is based at the KEMRI |Wellcome Trust research Programme in Kilifi have been elected to the prestigious Fellowship of the Academy of Medical S
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The Kenya Paediatric Association diner on the 28th of April 2016 at the Boma Hotel in Eldoret, was the climax of the KPA annual meeting that brought together over 300 delegates from the health sector in Kenya.
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This one week course is targeted at PhD students and early postdocs who have a strong interest in the interaction between the immune system, Parasites and other Pathogens and how this underlies the Pathogenesis
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The Epidemiology and Demography Department studies a range of respiratory and enteric viruses that are of major public health importance at the coastal region of Kenya. The department’s focus is understan
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Published in LANCET Global Health Volume 4, No. 7, e464–e473, July 2016 Each year, about 1 million children around the world die from SAM (severe acute malnutrition). Deaths in children with SAM mostly
Read More Africa has secured the winning bid to host the 2022 International Congress on Immunology (IUIS2022). It is the first time the Congress is being hosted in Africa and Cape town will welcome 6 000 delegates who ar
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The Nuffield Department of Medicine has recently helped support a new initiative that is working towards strengthening Health Systems Research in Kenya, more can be viewed on this link https://www.tropicalmedi
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Our Health Systems team has a strong presence in the ongoing Health Systems Global meeting in Vancouver Canada. This years theme is “Resilient and responsive health systems for a changing world” and m
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In a first, scientists used computer simulations to identify the vaccines most likely to be effective against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the most common cause of infant severe pneumonia worldwide. Al
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KEMRI-Wellcome is a high-tech research programme based in Kilifi County, in rural Kenya. Alongside research like sequencing DNA or intensive analysis of population data, the programme actively engages the com
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For a mother, nothing worries like waking up in the middle of the night with an infant with a fever and difficulty in breathing. But these are common occurrences for infants and young children especially in a h
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Prof. Tom Williams and Prof. Jay Berkley are among 46 world leading researchers elected to the prestigious Academy of Medical Science Fellowship. The two have been elected for their contribution to biomedical a
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The foundational basis for the pneumonia etiology results from the PERCH (Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health) project have been published in a 23-paper supplement in Clinical Infectious Diseases. The
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Epilepsy affects the brain and causes repeated seizures. Prompt diagnosis and effective management are key to controlling the condition, the cause of which is not fully understood . There are huge gaps in the w
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The KEMRI-Wellcome Trust research Programme will host this years world sickle cell day with various awareness activities. The activities will be held on Saturday June 17,2017 at Banda la Salama in Chonyi. We
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We would like to notify you that the call for abstracts towards the 5th Medical and Veterinary Virus Research Symposium, October 26th – 27th, 2017, is open. This year’s theme is One Health – Acc
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The Wellcome Open Research team launched its first gateway this Thursday July 20,2017 . The Gateway which is a collaboration of Wellcome open research team and the KWTRP creates a platform within the Open res
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Policy brief by the KWTRP Health Systems Research team led Edwine Barasa and Sassy Molyneux on, Improving Priority setting practices in Kenyan hospitals; Recommendations for county decision Makers and Hospital
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In order to reach out to more schools, SEP held their annual schools symposium in the Programme where, 29 secondary schools participated Each school was represented by 3 form three students and one teacher. The
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Jacquie Oliwa, Marta Maia and Benard Fulanda of Pwani University were the winners of these edition of I’m a scientist, get me out of here. The two weeks’ online engagement event brought together stude
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In this years ASK show the Programme scoop 2 prices. 1st prize in the Health and Pharmaceutical categories and third price in the research and development category. We also hosted the PS Agriculture Richard L
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Many congratulations also to Eduard Sanders who was awarded a Professorship by Oxford in the 2017 Recognition of Distinction exercise. Dr. Sanders is a public health physician and epidemiologist affiliated with
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The KWTRP blog page is live. The Blog page will be host to blogs on KWTRP’s research work and outputs, experiences of the various teams in field work, capacity building initiatives, collaborations and par
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KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Researchers have unveiled the largest repository of malaria survey data in Africa, covering over 50,000 surveys across 115 years starting in 1900, each documented by date, geolocation, numb
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Dr. Kinyanjui & Prof. Osier are among the 9 rapid impact projects recipients under the Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa (TIBA) partnership. These projects are designed to capture the diverse challenges
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Symon Kariuki based at KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi is among 5 pioneering early- career research scientists funded by MQ in 2017. Symon’s project is among three of the awards which
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The RinGs initiative brings together three health systems focused Research Programme Consortia (RPC): Future Health Systems, ReBUILD and RESYST in a partnership to galvanise gender and ethics analysis in he
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We are pleased to announce the Parasite Invasion Assay Workshop, funded by the Cambridge-Africa Alborada Fund, will be held at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya, from 4th – 8th Ju
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The Programme is hosting a Pre-congress session on Research Methods For Paediatricians at the Kenya Paediatric Association – 2018 Annual Scientific Conference. The session led by Ambrose Agweyu aims at illumi
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The Initiative to Develop African Research Leaders (IDeAL) at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Programme hosted and exciting 2& ½ day conference to Celebrate the programmes 10 years in Capacity building at the Mö
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KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP) looks to further engage with the media and the general public as part of its public engagement strategies through the newly launched “Jukwaa la Utafiti̶
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Over the last few months, KWTRP’s Community Liaison Group has worked with the Jukwaa Arts Productions using a magnet theatre model to sensitize the communities/publics within Kilifi County about the Research
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Two million pounds awarded to fight disease in East Africa • Engage health authorities and institutes, identify priority questions and link output to policy; • Fund 20 high calibre Research Fellows An East
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Malaria causes high levels of mortality in many tropical areas, most commonly due to severe acute anaemia, cerebral malaria and respiratory distress. Repeated exposure to uncomplicated malaria episodes is also
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The malaria vaccine was invented more than a century ago — yet each year, hundreds of thousands of people still die from the disease. How can we improve this vital vaccine? In this informative talk, immun
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Prof Bob Snow Bob has been elected as a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (The AAS). This is after a rigorous evaluation and reviews following nominations earlier this year. The AAS Fellowship recruitme
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The Schools engagement team led by Dr. Alun Davies are hosting the Inaugural 2 and half days International Schools Engagement meeting, In Kilifi. The meeting brings together more than 30 Schools engagement prac
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High throughput pathogen sequencing and predictive models underpin the modern approach to understanding community spread and optimal control of infectious diseases. In this field, despite high disease burden, l
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Gram negative bacteria produce endotoxins when they infect a host, which leads to a severe sepsis-like condition and derangement of the normal blood clotting pathways. A collaborative study between KEMRI-WTRP a
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There is a desperate need for new methods to train the growing numbers of healthcare workers around the world, particularly for managing emergencies in children. The Life-saving Instruction for Emergencies (LIF
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The attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) has become a policy priority at both global and national levels. At the global level, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) underscore the importance of heal
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The Programme was host to Eliza Manningham-Buller who is the Chair of the Wellcome Board, Simon Kay who is the Head International Operations and Partnership, Mary De Silva the Head of population Health and Prof
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Nadia Tagoe gives a brief of her recently published systematic review on HRCS consortia; There is currently a strong interest and greater investment in health research capacity strengthening (HRCS) initiatives
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Reducing deaths in the first 28 days of life (neonatal mortality) to below 12 deaths per 1,000 live births is a health goal.
Read More We hosted the 3rd quarterly review meeting for the ongoing ‘Jukwaa la Utafiti’ radio program that airs on Baraka FM every Thursday from 7.00pm – 9.00pm. The quarterly review meetings are part
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In the month of June, KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme (Nairobi) held a university engagement forum dubbed youthvoices4UHC. Over 50 students from different universities participated in the discussions th
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Edwine Barasa has been appointed as the chair to KEMRI Universal Health Coverage (UHC) committee. Benjamin Tsofa, Charles Mbogo and Jacinta Nzinga have been appointed as members of the same committee for a peri
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Although World Health Organization (WHO) rehydration management guidelines (Plan C) for severe dehydration are widely practiced in resource-poor settings, they have never formally been tested in a clinical tria
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A project bringing science to Kenyan schools has won a Project Award in this year’s Vice-Chancellor’s Public Engagement with Research Awards. The announcement was made at an awards ceremony at Keble College
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Teenage pregnancy is a serious public health and social problem across many low-and middle-income countries. We conducted a study to investigate the behavioural, familial and social factors associated with teen
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The KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP) Nairobi hub, was honoured to host Prof. Peter Agre the 2003 Nobel Laureates and the current director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute. Prof. Ag
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“the database will be useful across numerous domains for evaluating public health sector service delivery and optimizing health care to evaluating the emergence of epidemic pathogens and will be an invaluable
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The KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Program, Nairobi Hub held the first annual Nairobi stakeholders forum on 30th July 2019. The one-day forum hosted over 70 stakeholders from the Ministry of Health, private and
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The Nairobi Programme at KEMRI Wellcome Trust hosts over 17 principal researchers, 15 PhD fellows and a dedicated team of over 40 research assistants spanning clinical research, health services research, popula
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The provision of high-quality care to sick newborns presents challenges in any health system. Quality nursing care is a critical component of the care sick newborns need to survive their first days of life; and
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Researchers have shown that the iron export mutation (Q248H) that primarily occurs in populations of African ancestry may protect from iron deficiency and anemia. In contrast to previously published work (Zhang
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Congratulations to Dr. Sam Kinyanjui who was named winner of the 2019 Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Chalmers Medal. This honour was announced at the 11th European Congress on Tropical Medicine
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Worldwide, almost half of childhood deaths occur in newborns (the first four weeks of life), totalling 2.5 million each year, with the highest risks and slowest progress in Africa. Currently around 28 in every
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This is a mental health awareness campaign which is being conducted in Kilifi County along the Kenyan Coast. The awareness campaign slogan is “Difu Simo”, a Kigiryama phrase which means “Breaking free
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KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme undertook a study to understand and explore career progression and experiences of healthcare leaders at sub-national level in Kenya.
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LIFE allows healthcare workers to enter a realistic 3D virtual hospital on their own smartphones or using a virtual reality headset, such as the HTC Vive.
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KEMRI-Wellcome Trust participated in this year’s Equity Week between 11th and 15 November. Convened by the International Budget Partnership, Equity Week brings together stakeholders drawn from the national go
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The KEMRI-Wellcome Trust, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health, HiTAP and iDSI organized a short course on Health Technology Assessment that took place between the 18th to 22nd November in Nairobi. The pu
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Vitamin D deficiency is an important public problem worldwide because of its link to many diseases and poor health outcomes. However, there is limited data on the vitamin D status of African populations. We aim
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Policy makers are interested in knowing what practical steps to take to move towards a more gender-equitable and transformative health system. A new guide published by Research in Gender & Ethics (RINGs) is
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In search for better health, KEMRI was established in 1979 through the Science and Technology Act. In 1989 through a partnership with KEMRI, the Wellcome Trust and the University of Oxford, the KEMRI-Wellcome T
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A deficiency of iron for normal body function is the most common nutritional disorder in the world. Iron deficiency is the main cause of anaemia and is associated with poor brain development and long-term impai
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What are the health and Socio-economic impacts of physical distancing in African countries and how can they be mitigated? This work reviews the health and Socio-economic effects of physical distancing restricti
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Scientists in Kenya have successfully sequenced genomes of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the global COVID-19 pandemic, obtaining important information about the genetic composition of viral strains in 1
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Epidemics and pandemics disproportionately affect populations with greater impacts on the most vulnerable and less resilient communities. Hence Kenya’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic calls for more context
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Malaria is common in sub-Saharan Africa and kills thousands of children yearly. Interferon-gamma is produced to help fight against malaria, but high levels can induce reduced production of blood cells resulting
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In a recently published policy brief, Dr. Edwine Barasa and Dr. Angela Kairu costed the case management of COVID-19 patients from a health system perspective. Key messages from the policy brief • Per patient
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Oxford University’s LIFE project has launched a new set of app-based training scenarios that help healthcare workers in Africa safely manage and treat cases of children with suspected covid-19 6th July 2020,
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Join Dr. George Githinji and Dr. John Ojal for a webinar on 24th July, 2020, from 6pm – 7.30 pm as they discuss “The Role of SARS CoV-2 genomics in informing community transmission and public he
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… Everyday resilience is the maintenance of positive adjustment under challenging conditions such that the organisation emerges from those conditions strengthened and more resourceful...
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Difu Simo is a mental health awareness campaign in Kilifi County that is using art to create a space for dialogue between the world of biomedicine and traditional medicines with the aim of understanding mental
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Although health worker strikes are experienced globally, their effects have been argued to be the worst in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Strike actions range from merely halting work for a few hou
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1. What is the ChAdOx1 Vaccine Trial? This trial aims to assess whether the ChAdOx1 vaccine is safe, effective and provides immunity against COVID-19 in adults aged 18 years and above. 2. How long will the vacc
Read More 1. Je majaribio ya chanjo ya ChAdOx1 nCOV-19 ni nini? Majaribio haya yanalenga kutathmini ikiwa chanjo ya ChAdOx1 nCOV-19 ni salama, inafanya kazi na inapeana kinga dhidi ya COVID-19 kwa watu wazima wenye umri
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Kenya has joined the global efforts in search of an effective vaccine for COVID-19 with the start of a trial evaluating a leading COVID-19 vaccine candidate ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. The trial team has vaccinated its fi
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In Kenya, the Platform will be hosted in KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme. With Dr Benjamin Tsofa, Dr Jacinta Nzinga, Dr Sam Kinyanjui, Dr Kui Muraya, Dr Emelda Okiro, Dr David Gathara and Alex Njeru a
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Health system responsiveness, defined as how the health system reacts to input from the public or citizens is one of the goals of the health system alongside fairness in financing and health service outcomes. L
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The World Health Organization recommends use of Xpert® MTB/RIF (Xpert®) as a first-line TB diagnostic test. By 2018 there were 183 machines in Kenya in public hospitals across the country. However, despite th
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Summary We applied models that predicted the pattern of the first peak of COVID-19 cases in late July 2020 but did not predict the second peak in November 2020. The peak in November 2020 can be explained by now
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