Irene Njuguna, MBChB, MSc, PhD

Dr. Irene Njuguna, MBChB, MSc, MPH, PhD, is a Study Physician/Study Coordinator for multiple University of Nairobi-University of Washington collaborative studies focused on pediatric HIV. She has been responsible for developing study materials, managing clinical activities, preparing DSMB reports, and ensuring data quality. Dr. Njuguna was competitively selected as a 2011-2012 Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholar (FICRS) for mentored clinical research training. Her FICRS project focused on the implementation of a clinical trial evaluating the optimal timing of antiretroviral therapy in HIV-infected children. In the last 10 years, she has worked in clinical
research settings in Kenya in pediatric and adolescent HIV where she has led the implementation of four
randomized controlled trials (PEDVAC 002 [NCT00981695] Principal Investigator [PI] Tomas Hanke, Pediatric
Urgent Start of HAART [NCT02063880] PI John-Stewart, Financial Incentives to increase Pediatric HIV testing
[NCT03049917] PI Njuguna, and Adolescent Transition to Adult HIV Care [NCT03574129] PI John-Stewart) and
several observational studies focusing on pediatric HIV diagnosis, linkage to care, treatment, treatment
outcomes, and retention. Her early work was in pediatric HIV treatment studies, which focused on downstream
interventions for children who were critically ill, many of whom died. Her experiences witnessing high rates of
mortality in these studies inspired new “upstream” research interests to improve early pediatric HIV case
detection prior to symptomatic disease, and broader interests to improve survival and quality of life in HIV-infected
children growing to adolescence and adulthood. More recently, her work has focused on HIV-exposed
uninfected children to understand differences in growth, neurodevelopment, hearing and virologic and
microbiome differences that may explain high morbidity and mortality in this population.