News
July 10, 2018
Dr. Jillian Pintye receives award to measure HIV exposures in mothers and infants using hair samples
Categories: Awards, HIV, Research
Dr. Jillian Pintye, PhD, RN, MPH, Senior Fellow and Trainee with Global WACh and the Department of Global Health, is a recipient of a NIH R21 Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Award!
Dr. Pintye’s project entitled “Assessing Mother and Infant Antiretroviral Exposure Using Hair Measures” is a two-year grant that will begin in the coming weeks and end during summer 2020. She is serving as one of two Primary Investigators with Dr. Monica Gandhi from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), who is a leader in the field of HIV and women, and biomarkers for antiretroviral therapy exposure. (more…)
May 15, 2018
The mCUBE study, funded by Grand Challenges Explorations, seeks to understand women’s contraceptive preferences and behaviors in Kenya
Categories: Awards, Contraception
Written by Alison Drake, Assistant Professor of Global Health, and Claire Rothschild, Epidemiology PhD student and mCUBE Research Assistant
As mobile phone ownership is rapidly growing around the world, crowdsourcing – asking questions to solicit information from large groups of people – is an increasingly attractive way to conduct global health research. In Kenya, nearly 90% of the population has access to a mobile phone,[1] and capturing data through mobile phones may provide a low-cost and effective solution for tracking health outcomes over time.
In 2017, Global WACh’s Dr. Alison Drake, Assistant Professor of Global Health, was awarded a Gates Grand Challenges Explorations grant to explore this idea – how mobile phones might be used to understand Kenyan women’s experience using family planning over time. Women and girls face major challenges using family planning, including side effects, stigma, cost, and barriers to access.
Overall, 1 in 3 women starting a modern method of contraception stop using it within 1 year, and over half stop within 2 years.[2] This phenomenon is called the “leaking bucket”[3] in family planning coverage, making efforts to achieve universal access to family planning worldwide extremely difficult. (more…)
May 3, 2018
You’re invited to Global WACh’s annual end-of-year celebration!
Categories: Uncategorized
THURSDAY, MAY 17TH
4 – 6 PM
University of Washington Husky Union Building Lyceum
4001 Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115
Join us in celebrating our achievements this year in research, training, and service! Dr. Amita Gupta, MD, MHS of Johns Hopkins University will present the keynote address for our exciting one-hour program featuring speakers leading in the field of preventing mother-to-child pathogenic transmission.
Following the program, come network with Global WACh researchers and community members at our reception and poster session. We are pleased to feature capstone projects of graduating students from the Global WACh Certificate Program. Light refreshments will be served. (more…)
March 8, 2018
International Women’s Day 2018: Celebrating Women in Science
Categories: HIV and Co-Infections, Research
On International Women’s Day, we celebrate women in science who dedicate their knowledge and expertise to improve the health of women throughout all stages of life. Women and girls can build a healthier future for generations to come and it is important nourish, educate, and empower them. Today, we are pleased to feature a story of one researcher’s journey to self-empowerment through her research explorations.
In March and September of 2017, Global WACh highlighted Dr. Linnet Masese (then a Postdoctoral Fellow at the UW Department of Medicine and Clinic Section Head at the UW/University of Nairobi Research) and three published manuscripts from her study supported by Global WACh seed grant funding in 2011. (more…)
January 16, 2018
Spotlight on Global WACh Certificate Students: Elizabeth Karman and Sheldon Halstead
Categories: Certificate Program, students
Second year MPH students, Elizabeth and Sheldon recently returned from a six-month stay in Gondar, Ethiopia as SCOPE Fellows. Both students provided invaluable support on the Faith Leaders Advocating for Maternal Empowerment (FLAME) study, which aims to validate SCOPE’s strategy of integrating local Orthodox Priests into community-level health promotion. Elizabeth visited rural health centers to assess the maternity care services available, and worked with an interdisciplinary team of Ethiopian providers and researchers to analyze and map the data collected. Sheldon assisted a University of Gondar study team with the development and implementation of qualitative baseline data collection, namely focus group discussions with religious leaders, pregnant women, and male partners. Elizabeth’s assessment data and Sheldon’s results from the discussions will be used to inform and optimize the FLAME intervention. (more…)
Dr. Jennifer Slyker Receives Funding Award from National Institute of Health
Categories: Uncategorized
Dr. Jennifer Slyker, PhD, MSc, Assistant Professor of Global Health and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, received a R21 National Institute of Health Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Award to support on-going research on the risk factors and mechanisms of sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS. Dr. Slyker’s project titled “Cytomegalovirus (CMV) as a cause or co-pathogen in cervicitis” aims to determine whether CMV, a common virus that replicates in cervical tissue, contributes to cases of “non-specific” cervicitis and persistent cervical inflammation.
Cervicitis is usually caused by STIs and if left untreated, can lead to more serious infections of the uterus, infertility, and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Cervicitis attributed to a “specific” bacterial infection can be easily treated. However, up to 40% of women with cervicitis do not have a specific bacterial infection that can be identified. Understanding which bacteria or viruses contribute to these “non-specific” cases will help researchers understand better the basic biological processes of the condition and develop new treatments.
Dr. Slyker and her team plan to use data and specimens from a 20 year cohort of more than 2,000 female sex workers in Mombasa, Kenya led by Dr. Scott McClelland (Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Global Health). This long-term observational cohort has been invaluable in STIs and HIV/AIDS research at the University of Washington. If CMV is found to be an important contributor to cervicitis, clinical trials can determine if antiviral medication is effective in treating non-specific cervicitis and cervicitis that does not respond to conventional treatment.
We congratulate Dr. Slyker for her award and look forward to learning how the study findings could benefit the large percentage of women globally with non-specific cervicitis! The study is expected to end in 2020.
December 19, 2017
Global WACh Announces the 2017 Seeds for Change Recipients
Categories: Awards
Formerly known as the Small Change Awards, the Seeds for Change Awards are small infrastructure grants given to improve clinical care, patient satisfaction, workforce empowerment, and health service delivery for programs befitting the health of women, adolescents and children in resource-limited settings. Global WACh partners with awardees in the spirit that small changes can have a big impact.
Applicants submitted proposals that outlined a low-cost solution to address gaps in patient care at their sites. A panel of reviewers scored the proposals and selected ideas that demonstrated the most feasible, significant changes. We are pleased to announce and congratulate six outstanding proposals. (more…)
November 20, 2017
Global WACh’s Gut Health & Child Survival researchers at the 2017 ASTMH Conference
Categories: Conferences, Gut Health and Child Survival, Research
From November 5th-9th, researchers from the Global WACh Gut Health and Child Survival team attended the 66th American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. ASTMH is the largest international scientific organization of experts dedicated to reducing the worldwide burden of tropical infectious diseases and improving global health. At the conference, our researcher gave oral presentations and shared research findings, which support the global goal towards eliminating tropical diseases and saving lives. Meet our researchers and learn about their work below!
October 4, 2017
Study to make HIV testing informational videos and use saliva-based HIV testing in children launched in Kenya
Categories: Children, Health, HIV, Research
Tags: HIV
Most people assume HIV testing involves blood. While blood is the most commonly used, saliva is an alternative specimen to test and diagnose HIV in adults and adolescents. Benefits of saliva-based testing include the ease of collecting samples and increased acceptability of HIV testing. One example of a saliva-based test is OraQuick, a device used to collect and rapidly test saliva. (more…)
September 28, 2017
Successful staff training for PrIYA and PrIMA, HIV-prevention projects
Categories: Research
We love receiving updates from our research partners in Kenya! Last week, two HIV-focused projects, led by the Kenyatta National Hospital, Global WACh, and International Clinical Research Center (ICRC), held successful staff trainings in Kisumu, Kenya.
Both projects emphasize the use of oral pre-exposure antiretroviral prophylaxis, or PrEP, among adolescent girls and women who are at the greatest risk of HIV infection. PrEP is a daily anti-HIV medication that a person who does not have HIV takes to prevent infection. If taken daily as prescribed, PrEP is highly effective in stopping the HIV virus from taking hold and spreading throughout the body. (more…)
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