Conducting Programmatically Relevant and Innovative Research to Inform Policy and Practice in Kenya and Globally

The effectiveness of CDC Kenya’s work can be seen in the number and quality of evidence-based policies implemented by the Kenyan government and globally.

CDC’s history in Kenya began with a research collaboration to study malaria in Western Kenya. This initial collaboration has developed into a large and multi-faceted research and public health partnership that addresses health by linking relevant research to public health policy. CDC Kenya collaborates with various partners, including the U.S. National Institutes of Health, on clinical trials and evaluating of new vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, and prevention strategies, and perform operational research, and impact assessments.

One priority area is HIV research, which focuses on evaluating methods to prevent the spread of HIV and improve the health of persons living with HIV. In 2014, CDC worked collaboratively with KEMRI to be designated an NIH-recognized Clinical Research Site (CRS), the culmination of decades of joint capacity building by CDC and KEMRI. The field station was approved as a new research and laboratory site in the AIDS Clinical Trials Group’s (ACTG) worldwide network sponsored by the NIH. In early 2015, the CRS rapidly activated and successfully enrolled participants in five NIH funded studies including a multi-site, cohort study of MSM in Africa.

Each year, 1.5 to 2 million people worldwide die from TB disease. CDC and KEMRI are researching innovative ways of preventing, detecting, and treating TB among adults and children, including among people living with HIV for whom TB is one of the leading causes of death. One research project recently launched by CDC, KEMRI, the MOH, and the U.S. Agency for International Development will pilot three approaches to improving TB case detection, each of which is feasible in Kenya. Each approach will be piloted in separate areas and the change in case detection using each approach will be compared to the change in TB case detection in areas where no intervention was implemented. This will aid the Kenya MOH in identifying which strategy has the greatest population-level impact on TB case detection.