There are about 743 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Kenya. The country of the clinical trial is determined by the location of where the clinical research is being studied. Most studies are often held in multiple locations & countries.
The present research study will involve investigating the efficacy of large-scale dissemination models of evidence-based character strength interventions in secondary schools in Kenya. This intervention, derived from a previously tested intervention named Shamiri, or thrive in Kiswahili, uses positive psychology and accessible life skills to build individual resilience and wellness. This will be a one-arm trial with participants recruited from 20 secondary schools in Nairobi, Kiambu and Makueni counties. The investigators estimate a sample size of 3000 youth, working on an intention to treat basis. All interested participants will be admitted to the program, with no exclusion criteria applied. The investigators will report on the efficacy of character strength interventions on wellbeing and mental health outcomes. Further, the investigators will also assess the scalability and acceptability of the program post intervention. Additionally, the investigators will examine moderator effects on the participants, baseline attributes of the participants, and potentially the effects of candidate mediators on intervention effects.
Every year, rabies, a disease transmitted to humans by rabid dogs, is estimated to kill 59,000 people globally, mostly children 15 years and below in Africa and Asia. This is despite the availability of effective vaccines against rabies in humans, and in dogs. Following a dog bite, there are two critical steps required to prevent clinical disease and death: thorough wound washing with clean running water for at least 15 minutes; and immediate injection with anti-rabies vaccine on the day of being bitten followed by other four injections over the course of one month. Delay in seeking first dose of anti-rabies or failure to complete the recommended dosage may result in clinical rabies and death. The investigators proposed to assess the effect of short message system (SMS) phone text reminders sent to bite patients ahead of their scheduled visits on the adherence to scheduled anti-rabies doses among bite patients in rural eastern Kenya. The investigators enrolled bite patients presenting at Makueni County Referral Hospital between October 2018 and March 2019. Bite patients presenting to the facility between January and March 2019 received SMS reminder written in both English and local dialect a day before each dose of anti-rabies vaccine. These data were compared to those presenting to the health facility in the period prior (October to December 2018) before the introduction of the SMS reminder. This group received routine hospital cards as reminder of their next dose of anti-rabies vaccine injection. Each study participant was contacted after one month from the time of the bite and a phone interview completed to assess compliance and factors associated with completion of the five doses of anti-rabies vaccine.
The objective of the PATHOME study is to (1) develop statistical and computational methods for examining a complex disease system of interactions between and amongst children, animals, the environment, and enteric pathogens and (2) build a virtual laboratory for predicting which social and environmental developmental improvements best prevents multi-pathogen transmission to infants in urbanizing areas of high disease burden countries. Investigators will characterize how social and environmental development of urban neighborhoods in disease endemic settings modifies the "enteric pathome", i.e. the microbial communities of viral, bacterial, and protozoan pathogens transmitted by human and animal feces in the environment to infants. They will measure the impact of societal development on pathogen transmission to infants by applying a One Health ecosystem-based approach to characterizing interactions between enteric pathome agents in the environment and their transmission via interactions between infants, caregivers (CGs), animals, and environmental materials across domestic and public spaces and climate conditions. Data-validated statistical and computational models can quantify pathogen-specific attributable risk of infection through multiple pathways, and the extent that these risks are due to pathogen interactions with each other and the environment. The overall study hypothesis is that joint modeling of enteric pathome agents across urban households and neighborhoods representing transitional improvements in societal development will show that development leads to lower pathogen-specific detection frequencies, and thus evolution of the pathome from complex to simple microbial community structures. By studying spatial scale, developed and underdeveloped neighborhoods, specific transmission pathways, and seasonality in this process, the conditions that lead to the greatest declines in enteric disease incidence can be identified. This virtual laboratory will be built upon extensive data collection in two different Kenyan cities, including household and neighborhood economic indicators, clinical, zoonotic, and environmental microbiology, behavioral observation, geotracking of humans and domestic animals, climate conditions, population density, and infant anthropometry. This initial virtual lab will provide an evidence-based tool for predicting effective urban interventions to control fecally-transmitted disease in cities globally undergoing epidemiological transitions in infectious disease.
The serum or plasma ferritin concentration (referred to hereafter as ferritin) is the most widely used indicator to detect iron deficiency and a low ferritin indicates depleted iron stores. However, the threshold ferritin that defines iron deficiency remains unclear and diagnostic ferritin cutoffs from expert groups vary widely. Our study aim is to define the ferritin in Kenyan young women at which the body senses iron depletion and begins to upregulate iron absorption from the diet; this approach could provide a functionally defined threshold of iron deficiency in Sub-Saharan African women.
The investigators will recruit 40 pregnant women living with HIV divided into 2 groups (n=20 intervention group, n=20 control group). The intervention group will receive personalized lactation support and monthly unconditional cash transfers (100USD/month) from approximately 30 weeks pregnancy to approximately 6-months postpartum. The control group will receive the current standard care.
Part A: The purpose of this part of the study is to understand how the body's immune system responds to a new lab-made antibody against HIV. The study is looking to see if the way the antibody is given affects the immune response. The study will also look at whether the antibody is safe to give to people and does not make them too uncomfortable. Part B: The purpose of this part of the study is to understand how the body's immune system responds to lab-made antibodies against HIV when they are given in combination at different doses. The study also wants to see if the way the antibodies are given affects the immune response.
The study seeks to assess the safety and define blood and tissue benchmark concentrations of Tenofovir (TFV) and Tenofovir diphosphate (TFV-DP) in Cisgender women using directly observed tenofovir alafenamide (TAF)-emtricitabine (TAF-FTC) pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). These data will help accurate interpretation of efficacy results obtained in HIV prevention trials and programs in cisgender women.
The objective of the MoreMilk trial is to assess the effect of a Training, Certification and Marketing intervention for milk vendors in the informal sector on the safety of the milk sold in the markets and on the nutrition of children in peri-urban areas of Kenya. The intervention is a training scheme for dairy vendors designed to improve the vendors' business skills and increase their capacity to handle milk hygienically and recognize good quality milk. It will also support vendors to adopt marketing strategies and pass on messages to their customers on the role of milk for nutrition and good food handling practices. The intervention consists of a 12hr face-to-face training, followed by quarterly visits where milk safety is tested and results are reported back to the participants. To assess the effect of this intervention on milk safety, and selected health and nutrition outcomes, the study will work with two groups of participants: dairy retailers, referred to as dairy vendors, operating in the informal sector and consumer households that purchase milk from recruited vendors. Dairy vendors will be randomly allocated to receiving the training at the beginning of the study (treatment group) or at the end of the study (control group). A baseline survey will be administered to participating vendors and households, and an endline survey will be conducted 12 months after baseline in the same vendors and households. The vendor baseline and endline surveys will include questionnaire modules on operations, milk handling practices, and business performance. A sample of milk will also be collected to test the microbiological quality and composition of the milk. Vendors will be visited 2 additional times during the 12 months between intervention and endline, to monitor practices and business performance and to collect a milk sample to be tested for microbiological quality and milk composition. The baseline and endline surveys in households will assess milk and food expenditure, milk handling and consumption practices, and a 24hr dietary recall for the index child.
The investigators will conduct a cluster randomized controlled trial in maternity facilities in Kenya to evaluate the impact of a maternal and neonatal health package intervention on patient and provider outcomes. This package intervention includes two programs: PROMPTS, a digital health platform for mothers aimed to improve knowledge and health behaviors and increase care-seeking behavior at the right time and place, and MENTORS, a facility-based program aimed to increase and sustain providers' knowledge and skills in basic and emergency obstetric and newborn care. Facilities will be randomized into a treatment group that receives the package or a control group that receives usual care. Patient outcomes include health knowledge, health behaviors and health care utilization in the prenatal and postnatal period; provider outcomes include knowledge and quality of care.
This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in sickle cell disease participants with a history of Vaso-occlusive Crises (VOCs). Approximately 60 participants with sickle cell disease will be enrolled and randomized: 12 participants in each of four active novel formulation rifaximin groups and 6 participants in each of 2 placebo groups.