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Emelda Okiro

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Kenyan public health researcher
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Emelda Aluoch Okiro
Born1977 (age 46–47)
Alma materEgerton University
Open University
University of Warwick
Scientific career
InstitutionsKenya Medical Research Institute
University of Nairobi
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Kenya Medical Research Institute
Wellcome Trust
ThesisTransmission dynamics of respiratory syncytial virus within the household and the community (2007)

Emelda Aluoch Okiro (born 1977) is a Kenyan public health researcher who is lead of the Population Health Unit at the Kenya Medical Research Institute–Wellcome Trust program in Kenya. She looks to understand the determinants of health transitions and to evaluate access to health information. She is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences.

Early life and education

Okiro was born in Kenya, one of nine siblings. She went to school in Nairobi and Kitale. She was an undergraduate Egerton University, where she majored in biochemistry and chemistry. She completed her doctoral research between the Open University and University of Warwick, studying the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and how it is transmitted in the household and community. She collected data in Kilifi, where almost twenty thousand infants a year are hospitalised from RSV-induced pneumonia. She showed that saliva samples could be used to diagnose RSV, which would avoid the need for blood samples. After earning her doctorate, she moved to the University of Nairobi, where she worked on malaria. She studied how plasmodium falciparum varied in sites with different malaria endemicities. She moved to the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, where she worked on the Access, Bottlenecks, Costs and Equity (ABCE) project.

Research and career

Okiro worked as a program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she was based in the Global Health Team. She studied the impact of malaria control and anti-retroviral programs, and was responsible for setting up and coordinating the Malaria Modelling Consortium. She left the Foundation to work at the Philips Research Lab in Africa.

Okiro was appointed to the Population Health Unit at the Kenya Medical Research Institute–Wellcome Trust in 2016. She is investigating the epidemiology of malaria, and works to strengthen the use of health data in policy making. She is interested in the spatial heterogeneity of child survival across Kenya. She was elected to the African Academy of Sciences in 2020.

In 2022, Okiro was one of five African researchers to be awarded a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship. That year she was made professor.

Selected publications

Personal life

Okiro is on the International Advisory Board of The Lancet.

References

  1. ^ "DR EMELDA OKIRO: Pioneer of the saliva test". The East African. 2020-07-06. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
  2. Okiro, Emelda Aluoch (2007). Transmission Dynamics of Respiratory Syncytial Virus within the Household and in the Community (phd thesis). The Open University.
  3. Okiro, Emelda A.; Ngama, Mwanajuma; Bett, Ann; Nokes, D. James (2012-12-26). "The Incidence and Clinical Burden of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Disease Identified through Hospital Outpatient Presentations in Kenyan Children". PLOS ONE. 7 (12): e52520. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...752520O. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0052520. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3530465. PMID 23300695.
  4. ^ "Emelda Okiro | LINK malaria". web-archive.lshtm.ac.uk. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
  5. "Health Service Provision in Kenya: Assessing Facility Capacity, Costs of Care, and Patient Perspecti by Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation - Issuu". issuu.com. 2 October 2014. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
  6. ^ "Emelda Okiro | The AAS". www.aasciences.africa. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
  7. "Emelda Okiro | LINK malaria". web-archive.lshtm.ac.uk. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
  8. "Emelda Okiro". www.tropicalmedicine.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
  9. "Dr". tdr.who.int. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
  10. Admin (2022-04-14). "Celebrating Dr. Emelda Okiro". KEMRI. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
  11. "Congratulations to our new Associate Professors — Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health". www.tropicalmedicine.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
  12. "International Advisory Board". www.thelancet.com. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
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