Nelly Mugo, MBChB, MMed, MPH

Research Associate Professor, Global Health

Prof. Nelly R. Mugo is an associate research professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington, a senior principal clinical research scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), and a reproductive health specialist with three decades of work experience. Her research focus has been on the prevention of HIV and cervical cancer among other reproductive health research work.  She has been an investigator on two landmark clinical trials, the Partners PrEP study that contributed evidence to inform the change of indication for use of Truvada as HIV prevention pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and a protocol lead for the ongoing ‘Kenya Single-dose HPV Vaccine-Efficacy (KEN SHE) Study –’ that has provided evidence on the efficacy of single-dose HPV vaccination. She is a member of the International Papillomavirus Society education committee, and the Kenya Obstetrics and Genecology society and has contributed to several World Health Organization and Kenya ministry of health working group scientific committees. She is widely published in peer review journals.

Publications

  1. Barnabas, RV, Brown, ER, Bukusi, EA, Njoroge, B, Winer, RL, Galloway, DA et al.. Efficacy and durability of immediate versus delayed single-dose HPV vaccination for persistent infection among young women in Kenya: a randomized, blinded, cross-over clinical trial. Nat Commun. 2026; :. doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-72654-8. PubMed PMID:42115165 .
  2. Omole, TE, Nguyen, HM, Marcinow, A, Jahan, N, Severini, G, Naicker, N et al.. Pre-Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection Th17 CD4+ T cells as predictors of early HIV disease progression. PLoS Pathog. 2026;22 (4):e1013852. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1013852. PubMed PMID:42030410 PubMed Central PMC13132424.
  3. Warrier, L, Saito, A, Graham, JB, Swarts, JL, Vick, SC, MacLean, F et al.. Initiation of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis associated with changes in genital tract T cell phenotypes in women exposed to HIV. J Infect Dis. 2026; :. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiag204. PubMed PMID:41966988 .
  4. Heller, KB, Mohamed, JS, Cherne, SL, Onono, M, Bukusi, EA, Njoroge, BW et al.. High agreement of Seegene AnyplexTM HPV 28 and AllplexTM HPV 28 for High-Risk Vaccine-Type HPV Detection in the KEN SHE Study. J Virol Methods. 2026; :115395. doi: 10.1016/j.jviromet.2026.115395. PubMed PMID:41962590 .
  5. Segawa, I, Wu, L, Odoyo, J, Mwangi, M, Morton, JF, Irungu, E et al.. High adherence to oral daily PrEP in a real-world implementation project in Kenya: a brief communication. AIDS Res Ther. 2026;23 (1):. doi: 10.1186/s12981-026-00875-4. PubMed PMID:41877166 PubMed Central PMC13137526.
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