Researchers work toward improving health in Kenya – and beyond
Introduction Heading link
Over seven days in July, UIC School of Public Health Dean Wayne H. Giles visited Kenya for a firsthand look at the School’s longstanding relationship with the East African nation of some 48 million people.
Giles spoke with SPH students working on the ground, engaged with local residents, and observed the execution of research projects tackling critical health issues such as sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and drinking water. Giles called it an “eye-opening experience” that motivated and inspired.
“I could see the impact of this work at the local level, but also the way these different projects could be scaled up,” Giles said. “There are opportunities we can build on and collaborations we can deepen to feed our mission of improving health for the world’s citizens.”
In Kenya, a nation challenged by pockets of poverty and pressing health concerns, SPH researchers are delivering on that ambitious mission, blending cutting-edge scholarship with an earnest spirit to help mankind.
Establishing Roots in Kenya Heading link
Soon after arriving at UIC in 1996 and spurred by an article in Scientific American suggesting that male circumcision might prevent HIV, professor of epidemiology Robert Bailey ventured to western Kenya, where HIV infections were commonplace and circumcision remained particularly rare.
Believing the relationship between circumcision and HIV warranted a thorough investigation, Bailey conducted a randomized control trial involving some 2,800 men over five years. The results showed that circumcision reduced HIV rates by 60 percent.
That research effort sparked Bailey to co-found an NGO called the Nyanza Reproductive Health Society (NRHS), which began scaling up circumcision across Kenya by offering free comprehensive circumcision services that included HIV testing, behavioral counseling, and treatment of STIs. Simultaneously, the work of Bailey’s team prompted agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to invest in their own male circumcision programs across 13 sub-Saharan African countries devastated by HIV. To date, those programs have achieved more than 15 million circumcisions, which are estimated to prevent 2.5 million new HIV infections over the next ten years.
“We showed something was effective and then implemented evidence-based programs that built off that research. As a result, we are saving lives and minimizing suffering,” said Bailey, who will be named a UIC Distinguished Professor later this year.
Over the last 16 years, NRHS has provided a platform for more than 30 other public health studies, much of the work funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bailey, meanwhile, has extended his research into other areas of HIV and STIs, including addressing the needs of men who have sex with men.
Most recently, for instance, Bailey and his team have been working with a 725-member cohort of gay and bisexual men in Kenya, a highly stigmatized set in a country where homosexuality is illegal. The program, Anza Mapema, which means “Start Early” in Swahili, mixes medical treatment, namely the distribution of antiviral medications, with behavioral counseling and services aimed at reducing risk behaviors, such as supplying condoms and lubricants as well as substance abuse counseling and peer outreach.
“We want people infected to start treatment early and take initiative for their lives,” said Bailey, who spends approximately five months each year in Kenya. “I know we’re having a significant impact on lives and producing a positive ripple effect in the country, and that’s the most encouraging part here.”
Opening Doors for Others Heading link
Bailey’s groundbreaking work in Kenya, including the trust he has cultivated between UIC, the Kenya Ministry of Health, and on-the-ground partners, has opened the door for other SPH faculty members to pursue projects in the East African nation.
In recent years, associate professor of epidemiology Supriya Mehta has had a pair of NIH-funded projects in Kenya. Her current effort investigates the use of menstrual cups in young Kenyan women as a means to help prevent vaginal infections and STIs, which can increase risk for HIV and threaten a young woman’s ability to conceive children.
“I’m particularly interested in research that leads to tangible benefits in female reproductive health, which is a core human right that isn’t always given equal footing around the world,” said Mehta, who first began working in Kenya in 2007 in collaboration with Bailey. “If we can demonstrate the biological mechanisms, then we can translate that research to other high-risk populations and attack a significant global problem.”
Samuel Dorevitch, an associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences, is the most recent SPH faculty member to enter Kenya. In January 2017, Dorevitch launched a study to assess the relationship between drinking water and pediatric health.
Teaming with a group of engineers from the University of Illinois who had developed a solar-powered method for disinfecting drinking water, Dorevitch and his colleagues brought the technology to 10 families in Kenya thanks to a seed grant from the UIC Global Health Center. The researchers supplied the solar panels and water treatment technology before measuring the innovation’s effect on water quality as well as gauging the residents’ acceptance of the product.
“It was so successful that neighbors and friends were bringing their water over to be disinfected,” Dorevitch said.
In September, Dorevitch spent 10 days in Kenya preparing for the project’s next step: a field study supported by The Portes Foundation to examine how the water treatment technology impacts the health of children.
“Here in Chicago, we’re accustomed to turning on the tap and getting safe drinking water, but drinking water is a matter of life and death in Kenya and many other countries around the world,” Dorevitch said. “If we can create solutions for safer drinking water, then we can make a powerful difference in lives in Kenya and beyond.”
And that, Giles noted, is among the foremost aims of the School of Public Health, whether that improved quality of life happens here in Chicago, 8,000 miles away in Kenya, or in any other corner of the world.
“We’re committed to improving health and well-being around the world,” Giles said. “That means both disseminating our knowledge beyond Chicago as well as bringing the experiences we have abroad back to UIC to strengthen our work.”