Improving pneumonia care

Pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of death among children under 5. Clinical trials, observational studies, and systematic reviews to inform guidelines for the care of children with pneumonia in hospitals aim to determine how to best preserve existing treatments, and look for new alternatives. Working in hospitals with practicing clinicians provides a unique insight applicable in real world settings.

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I am a Kenyan paediatrician and clinical epidemiologist with broad interests in pragmatic clinical trials, childhood respiratory illnesses, and clinical guideline implementation. I currently head the Department of Epidemiology and Demography at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme

As a member of a team constituted to support the local adaptation of the World Health Organization paediatric clinical practice guidelines in Kenya, I was responsible for the review of evidence on the treatment guidelines for childhood pneumonia using the GRADE methodology in 2010. In response to a gap in evidence exposed during this exercise, I led a team in designing and conducting a multi-centre pragmatic clinical trial to compare oral and injectable antibiotic treatments among children indrawing pneumonia in Kenya. Draft recommendations to change national policy based on this trial alongside other evidence were presented to the Ministry of Health and accepted as new treatment guidelines in early 2015.

More recently, I was awarded funding from the DfID/ MRC/ NIHR/ Wellcome Trust Joint Global Health Trials Scheme as Principal Investigator for a large multi-country Phase III trial to study alternative injectable antibiotics and approaches to providing supportive care for children hospitalised with severe pneumonia.

I am also an active member of the Kenya Paediatric Association, and frequently contribute to various technical committees convened by the Ministry of Health.