University of Nairobi Research Training Program (UON-RTP)

Research Training on HIV Prevention and Treatment in Children and Adolescents

Adolescent girls and young women represent the fastest growing population of persons living with HIV in Kenya, contributing nearly 40% of new HIV infections. This pattern jeopardizes efforts to address HIV in infants and contributes to the sustained epidemic of pediatric HIV. Kenya had impressive gains in preventing vertical HIV transmission in the early years of the epidemic with a 55% reduction in transmission between 2009 and 2015. These gains have been reversed in recent years and Kenya’s current vertical HIV transmission rate of >8% is unacceptably high. In Kenya, clinician-scientists played a major role in anchoring the early HIV response however there continue to be very limited opportunities for career development in Kenya for individuals with clinical background who wish to continue in clinical practice as well as build a research career in academic settings.

The majority of successful Kenyan clinician-scientists have been trained overseas, highlighting the need to develop and scale-up research-oriented training programs in Kenya. While this push to improve quality of teaching and research is well-intentioned, there are insufficient numbers of doctoral programs and mentors within Kenya, particularly in the areas of epidemiology and biostatistics.  This program seeks to strengthen the research opportunities in Kenya for clinicians who want to develop careers as independent researchers through the proposed program, “Research Training on HIV Prevention and Treatment in Children and Adolescents.” The program will be led by Drs. Dalton Wamalwa and Ruth Nduati at the University of Nairobi (UON) and co-directed with Dr. Carey Farquhar at the University of Washington (UW)

Directors: