Kenya
November 15, 2016
Gut Health and Child Survival at ASTMH
Categories: Research, Talks and Events
Tags: antibiotic resistance, bacterial diseases, gut health, Kenya, Pediatrics
This week, members of our enteric research team are in Atlanta, Georgia for the 65th annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH). They join approximately 4,400 other researchers, government and public health officials, practicing physicians, students, and all health care providers working in the fields of tropical medicine, hygiene, and global health.
Our Healthy Growth and Development Core is dedicated to optimizing care in young children at high risk of diarrhea-associated mortality and the ASTMH annual meeting provides our team with a unique opportunity to discuss recent findings, build inspiration for our next big projects, and re-energize our commitment to reducing the worldwide burden of tropical infectious diseases to improve health around the world.
Yesterday ASTMH heard from Rebecca Brander on correlations of drug resistance in Kenyan children with acute bacterial diarrhea. Rebecca is a MPH student at the University of Washington and completed this research in collaboration with Global WACh directors Grace John-Stewart, Patty Pavlinac, and Judd Walson. Patty Pavlinac, our Health Growth and Development director, leads the Global WACh representation at the conference.
Rebecca’s study “Host and Environmental Correlates of Multi-Drug Resistance in Kenyan Children with Acute Bacterial Diarrhea” is a key area of research for addressing the prevalence in which bacterial diarrhea results in significant morbidity and mortality in children in sub-Saharan Africa. Antibiotic treatment can be a life-saving intervention, but the antibiotic resistance has rapidly emerged in this population of children, and now this intervention’s efficacy is limited. The study’s data pinpoints risk factors for antibiotic resistance in enteric pathogens, in order to inform diarrhea management recommendations and control resistance.
Click to read the entire study
September 12, 2016
Making strides in HIV testing and counseling
Categories: Research
Tags: HIVTesting, Kenya, KNH, Pediatrics
Irene Njuguna and Jill Neary are MPH Candidates in Epidemiology at the UW School of Public Health. With mentorship from Global WACh researcher Jenn Slyker and Kenyatta National Hospital VCT Director Dr. David Bukusi, they developed a new tool to track provider initiated HIV testing and counseling for children admitted to hospitals in Kenya. Read about their work below.
In line with the World Health Organization recommendations, the Kenya National HIV testing guidelines recommend universal provider initiated HIV testing and counseling (PITC) for all children in sub Saharan Africa who come in contact with health care facilities. However, in many settings universal PITC is not routinely implemented, with ward transfers, weekend admissions, and discharges resulting in some missed testing opportunities. This results in late diagnosis of HIV infected children, who are at high risk of mortality and do not benefit fully from HIV treatment.
This project began with the intent to intervene in this cycle of unmet HIV care needs. The team looked to Kenya’s national referral hospital: Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH). Working with the PITC team at KNH, the team established an important framework for developing easy to use, acceptable tools to track and improve PITC coverage. In partnership with the KNH pediatric ward PITC counselors, a system was developed to track each individual child admitted, confirm testing completion, identify reasons any children missed testing, and flag children requiring testing.
The tool was successfully piloted in the pediatric department, and at the end of the practicum period, the PITC team recommended that the tool also be used in the adult in-patient medical wards.
Jill Neary (left) and Irene Njuguna (right) with Ruth Andere: the leader of the Pediatric PITC team.
Congratulations Irene, Jill, and the entire KNH team for your accomplishment! We can look forward to hearing about the continued success of PITC at Kenyatta National Hospital.