Dr. Ian Oyaro, BVM

Email : IOyaro@kemri-wellcome.org

Ian Oyaro has worked on sequencing and proteomic based techniques in a quest to improve diagnosis of febrile coma at the Kenyan coast. Additionally, he has also been involved in protocol optimisation studies for disease proteomics. Oyaro is interested in the evaluation of the role of early HIV-specific T and B cell interactions in predetermining downstream antibody function, in a quest to inform vaccine development. While clinical trials have shown favourable efficacies of several HIV/AIDS intervention techniques such as medical male circumcision, it is of great importance to develop a vaccine, as the currently existing methods require either behaviour change or expensive medical interventions. Determination of early immunological correlates that influence the development of broadly neutralising antibodies may suggest coherent approaches for successful vaccine development and identify useful biomarkers for assessing candidate vaccine immunogens. These biomarkers may hold the key to the development of antibody-based HIV vaccines.

Dr. Kenneth Munge, MBChB

Munge is a public health practitioner with background training and experience as a medical doctor. His interests are in economics of health systems, health systems, and primary care. He has experience in research, analysis and policy engagement in Kenya examining vaccine safety, health financing, strategic purchasing and economic evaluation.
His PhD is examining the capacity of decentralised governments in Kenya to raise the level of public health expenditure without harming their financial well-being (i.e. fiscal space for health) in the context of Kenya’s pursuit of universal health coverage (UHC).
He is co-leading work surveying the distribution of, risk factors for, and cost-effectiveness of diagnostic strategies for hypertension and diabetes; which is also examining the performance and capacity of the Kenyan health systems to deliver interventions to target these diseases through primary care.
He is a member of the African Health Economics and Policy Association, the International Health Economics Association and the John Snow Society.
He is part of the management group of RESYST – Resilient and Responsive Health Systems – a DFID-funded international consortium, that brings together ten African and Asian countries and is also a member of the Kenya Country Core Group for the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage.

Peter Macharia

Peter Macharia is a PhD candidate of spatial epidemiology at The Open University UK, supported by the Initiative to Develop Research Leaders (IDeAL), based at the Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP).  His PhD research focuses on modelling subnational child mortality, its determinants and their contribution since 1965 in Kenya. This work will allow benchmarking, inform policies, resource allocation and the realization of SDGs

Prior to this Peter was a geospatial modeller with the spatial health metrics group within KWTRP, where he worked on mapping populations at risk of malaria, coverage of malaria interventions, access to health services and developed spatial models to quantify bed-nets needed at each health facility in Kenya

He holds a MSc in Geospatial Information System (GIS)  and Remote Sensing from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology(JKUAT), Postgraduate Diploma in Health research methods  from Pwani University and BSc in Geomatic Engineering and GIS from JKUAT

His interests are in disease mapping and spatial epidemiology (child mortality, its determinants, access and utilization to healthcare).

Peter is a member of The International Society of Geospatial Health , The GIS chapter of the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya and The American Association of Geographers

Publications:

1. Sub national variation and inequalities in under-five mortality in Kenya since 1965 (2019). Macharia PM, Giorgi E, Thuranira PN, Joseph NK, Sartorius B, Snow RW, Okiro EA | BMC Public Health 19:146 [ PMID: 30717714] [PMCID: PMC6360661]
2. What mapping Kenya’s child deaths for 50 years revealed – and why it matters (2019). Macharia PM and Okiro EA The Conversation
3. Spatio-temporal analysis of Plasmodium falciparum prevalence to understand the past and chart the future of malaria control in Kenya. (2018). Macharia PM, Giorgi E, Noor AM, Waqo E, Kiptui R, Okiro EA, Snow RW|Malaria journal
4. National and sub-national variation in patterns of febrile case management in sub-Saharan Africa: an insight into public health sector service delivery. (2018). Alegana VA, Maina J, Paul O Ouma PO, Macharia PM, Wright J, Atkinson PM, Okiro EA, Snow RW, Tatem AJ|Nature Communication
5. Access to emergency hospital care provided by the public sector in sub-Saharan Africa in 2015: a geocoded inventory and spatial analysis. (2018) Ouma PO, Maina J, Thuranira PN, Macharia PM, Alegana AA, English M, Okiro EO, Snow RW|Lancet Global Health
6. Coverage of routine reporting on malaria parasitological testing in Kenya, 2015–2016. (2017) Maina JK, Macharia PM, Ouma PO, Snow RW, Okiro EA|Global health action 
7. Spatial models for the rational allocation of routinely distributed bed nets to public health facilities in Western Kenya. Macharia PM, Ouma PO, Odera PA, Snow RW, Noor AM (2017)|Malaria Journal
8. Spatial accessibility to basic public health services in South Sudan. Macharia PM, Ouma PO, Gogo EG, Snow RW, Noor AM (2017).|Geospatial Health
9. A national health facility survey of malaria infection among febrile patients in Kenya, 2014.Githinji S, Noor AM, Malinga J, Macharia PM, Kiptui R, Omar A, Njagi K, Waqo E, Snow RW (2016).|Malaria Journal

Dr. Derick Kimathi, MBChB

Derick Kimathi is a medical doctor, trained at the University of Nairobi. Derick joined KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in 2017. He works within the arbovirus group, where he leads the human clinical trials. His interests are in tropical diseases prevention with a focus on emerging and re-emerging diseases; how to utilize vaccines for disease outbreak prevention and disease epidemic control.

Derick was awarded the TNF -Scholarship at the University of Oxford. His PhD is examining the immunogenicity of fractional doses for the Yellow Fever Vaccines in an attempt to redefine the minimum dose recommendation for the vaccine. His work also focuses on understanding the health policy processes at a macro level and how that influences vaccine use routinely and during epidemics.

Derick is the lead for the EDCTP funded multi-site study (NIFTY) with partners in KWTRP- Kenya, Epicentre- Uganda and France, UVRI-Uganda, Institut Pasteur de Dakar- Senegal and the University of Oxford.