IVI and Kenya

Ongoing Collaboration

In December 2020, IVI and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) signed an MoU to explore potential collaboration in vaccine self sufficiency in Kenya. 

Previous Collaboration

Typhoid Surveillance in sub-Saharan Africa Program (TSAP)

From 2010 to 2014, IVI’s The Typhoid Fever Surveillance in Africa Program (TSAP) obtained comparable incidence data on typhoid fever and invasive nontyphoidal Salmonella (iNTS) disease in sub-Saharan Africa through standardized surveillance in ten countries (Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Madagascar, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, and Tanzania).

In Kenya, TSAP ran from 2012 to 2013, at a site in the Kibera division of Niarobi, Kenya, where an Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) operated by the KEMRI–Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Kenya Collaboration was additionally accessible. At this particular site in Kibera, an active, population-based surveillance component was utilized where home visits were made every two weeks to all HDSS households to screen for febrile patients and encourage visits to the designated sentinel health facility as necessary where free treatment was offered

Each TSAP site conducted passive surveillance for bloodstream infections among febrile patients to isolate and identify aerobic bacteria from the patients’ blood. Healthcare utilization surveys were conducted to adjust population denominators in incidence calculations for differing healthcare utilization patterns and improve comparability of incidence rates across sites. The results of TSAP indicated that enteric fever caused by Salmonella Typhi and non-typhoidal Salmonella are significant problems in Africa and that the prevalence of multi-drug resistance may limit appropriate treatment options.

Along with its new disease burden discoveries, TSAP and its collaborators strengthened local surveillance capacities at multiple sites across sub-Saharan Africa, creating a system that has improved bacterial disease diagnostics, disease surveillance, reporting, and analysis systems in the region. 

Vaccinology Training

Since 2013, eight Kenyan scientists and medical professionals have received training at IVI’s Annual Vaccinology Course.