Awards
September 16, 2020
Dr. Keshet Ronen and the Somali Health Board partner to increase COVID-19 testing equity in King County, WA
Categories: Awards, COVID-19, Research
Congratulation to Dr. Keshet Ronen (Acting Assistant Professor, Global Health) and Dr. Ahmed Ali (Executive Director, Somali Health Board) for receiving a COVID-19 Population Health Equity Grant from the University of Washington to increase access to COVID-19 testing among the Somali community in King County, WA. Led in partnership with the Somali Health Board, a Somali-led grassroots organization, this project aims to understand barriers to testing in this heavily impacted community and identify approaches to improve health equity in King County’s testing strategy. (more…)
August 26, 2020
Dr. Irene Njuguna receives NIH Emerging Global Leader Award to support HIV+ adolescents thrive in schools
Categories: Awards, HIV, Research, Schools
Congratulations to Dr. Irene Njuguna (Pediatric Infectious Disease Resarcher, Kenyatta National Hospital) for receiving a National Institutes of Health K43 Emerging Global Leader Award! Dr. Njuguna is currently involved in multiple University of Nairobi-Global WACh collaborative studies focused on pediatric and adolescent HIV. This five-year award supports her growing research career in this field. The new study titled “Understanding the role of schools in supporting HIV treatment outcomes among HIV infected adolescents,” — also known as TIMIZA, the Swahili word for “achieve” – focuses on the role of schools in supporting HIV treatment for adolescents in Kenya. (more…)
July 16, 2020
Dr. Arianna Means awarded NIH grant to develop strategies to improve pediatric treatment guideline adherence at healthcare facilities
Categories: Awards, Gut Health and Child Survival, Research
Primary causes of death for children under five include pneumonia and diarrhea, and nearly half of deaths are attributable to undernutrition. It is estimated that over half of these deaths are preventable with simple, existing, appropriately applied evidence-based interventions, synthesized within pediatric clinical treatment guidelines. Although health workers in low-and-middle-income countries are trained on pediatric treatment guidelines, adherence to guidelines is often low and there is a need to identify strategies to improve quality of care in settings with the highest burden of preventable child deaths.
May 26, 2020
Q&A: New CHAIN Network project to monitor COVID-19 in Kenya and how it will benefit women, adolescent, child health
As the global COVID-19 pandemic spreads, there are increasing numbers of cases in low- and middle-income country settings, including in many African countries. The Childhood Acute Illness and Nutrition Network (CHAIN), led by Global WACh Co-Director Dr. Judd Walson, received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to monitor the spread of COVID-19 at sites in Kenya in order to increase understanding of its effects on vulnerable children and adults, healthcare workers, and researchers. This project is a collaboration with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), the KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Research Programme Clinical Information Network (CIN), the University of Oxford and the University of Washington. Click here to learn more about the project in the Department of Global Health News.
The fight against the novel virus has caused major changes in many people’s way of life—some predictable, others still hard to imagine. We asked our CHAIN colleagues in Kenya to share their perspectives on how COVID-19 is affecting their communities and how this new project can benefit vulnerable populations. (more…)
May 22, 2020
Dr. Keshet Ronen receives 2nd year funding for social media-based counseling intervention to local peripartum adolescents
Congratulations to Dr. Keshet Ronen, Clinical Assistant Professor in Global Health, and collaborators for receiving additional funding from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Social Media and Adolescent Health Research Team for the “Social media support for peripartum adolescents in Seattle” study. They will continue developing and piloting a social media group cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention—a form of psychotherapeutic treatment that helps patients understand how thoughts and feelings influence behavior—to prevent perinatal depression among adolescents. Click here to read the original award announcement and learn more about the study’s intervention.
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New study will investigate how latent co-infections affect clinical outcomes in HIV-infected Kenyan children
Categories: Awards, Children, HIV and Co-Infections
African children with delayed HIV diagnosis have a high risk of death, and there is an urgent need for novel strategies to improve their care. As HIV treatment expands across Africa, Global WACh researchers seek to understand the complex interplay of infectious diseases and HIV infections, which is pivotal to the development of more effective treatments. Dr. Jennifer Slyker (Associate Professor, Global Health; Adjunct Associate Professor, Epidemiology) is leading a new study funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) to investigate how common, asymptomatic co-infections affect clinical outcomes in critically ill HIV-infected Kenyan children during hospitalization. (more…)
February 14, 2020
Announcing the 2019 Seeds for Change Awardees
Categories: Awards
Global WACh is pleased to announce the largest group of recipients of the 2019 Seeds for Change Resource Award to Strengthen Collaborative Sites. We received the most applicants this year compared to previous years. Congratulations to our 10 awardees! We look forward to sharing the impact of these small changes with big improvements in clinical care, patient satisfaction, workforce empowerment, and health service delivery for programs benefiting the health of women, adolescents and children.
| Applicant | Site | Country | Project Title |
| Ahoua Koné | Bondoukou Referral Hospital | Côte d’Ivoire | Improving the hospital experience for pediatric patients |
| Benson Singa | Migori Country Referral Hospital | Kenya | Improving Privacy and Care for Women at MCH Clinic and favourable health outcomes for Neonates and Malnourshed Children admitted at Migori County Referral Hospital |
| Brenda Wandika | Mathare North Health Centre | Kenya | Improving infrastructure to support maternity care in Mathare North Health Centre |
| Christine Kiruthu-Kamamia | Lighthouse Trust | Malawi | The Lighthouse Trust Children and Adolescent Support Program |
| Ednah Ojee | Mathare North Health Centre | Kenya | Improving Emergency Response at the Mathare North Health Centre Maternity Ward |
| Emma Otieno | Yala Sub County Hospital | Kenya | Emergency response equipment for the FIT/STEP UP Study |
| Judy Onyango | Mathare North Health Centre | Kenya | Improving Perinatal Monitoring |
| Karoli Lwanga | Mbita Sub County Hospital | Kenya | Resources for the Antibiotic Use in Children with Severe Diarrhoea (ABCD) Study |
| Matemo Daniel | Lumumba Sub County Hospital | Kenya | Refurbishing Hospital Space for TB and MCH care |
| Nelly Mugo | Partners in Health Research and Development research site in Thika | Kenya | Enhancing waiting room experience for women and adolescents |
February 3, 2020
Predoctoral Research Fellow, Claire Rothschild, receives NICHD fellowship award focused on women’s reproductive health in Kenya
Categories: Awards, Contraception, Family Planning, students
Claire Rothschild, a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Epidemiology, received a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) F31 pre-doctoral fellowship to support her dissertation research on using mobile technology to improve family planning data and outcomes in Kenya. In collaboration with PATH-Kenya and Kenyatta National Hospital, Claire’s research focuses on better understanding when and why women discontinue and switch methods of contraception, with the specific goal of identifying factors that predict dissatisfaction and early discontinuation of contraceptive methods among women who do not wish to become pregnant. (more…)
December 6, 2019
Research Assistant, Anna Larsen, awarded grants to guide journey towards an independent maternal-child HIV research career
Categories: Awards, HIV and Co-Infections, PrEP, students
Anna Larsen (second right) with PrIMA Kenya-based study staff members (left to right): Joseph Sila (Data manager), Daniel Odinga (Laboratory Manager), Salphine Watoyi (Data Manager), Marwa Motongori (Data Manager), and Harison Lagat (Study Coordinator)
Anna Larsen, second year PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology and Global WACh research assistant, is the recipient of two notable funding awards that will shape her academic journey towards an independent research career in maternal-child HIV. She is one of 11 student awardees of the Department of Global Health’s 2019 Thomas Francis Jr. Fellowship and one of an even more limited group of awardees of the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) prestigious F31 predoctoral training fellowship to support her dissertation research. The awards provide funding support for fieldwork activities and dedicated supervised research training. (more…)
November 25, 2019
New NIH study will test strategies to improve PrEP delivery to women receiving MCH services in Western Kenya
Categories: Awards, HIV and Co-Infections, PrEP, Research
Left to right: Dr. Grace John-Stewart, Dr. Pamela Kohler, Dr. Anjuli Wagner, Dr. John Kinuthia
In February 2020, Global WACh researchers of ongoing PrEP implementation studies are launching a new five-year study titled, “PrEP in pregnancy, accelerating reach and efficiency (PrEPARE).” PrEPARE is funded through a National Institute of Health supplement to the AGYW study, led by Global WACh Director, Dr. Grace John-Stewart and Dr. Pamela Kohler (Global Health, Psychosocial and Community Health) to evaluate PrEP adherence among adolescent girls and young women, and a K01 grant awarded to Dr. Anjuli Wagner (Acting Assistant Professor, Global Health).
Principal investigators, Drs. John-Stewart, Kohler, Wagner, and Dr. John Kinuthia (Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya) will lead the PrEPARE study team that includes Global WACh researchers, Dr. Jillian Pintye (School of Nursing), Dr. Kristin Beima-Sofie (Global Health), Julia Dettinger (Global Health) and Laurén Gomez (Global Health).
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