Respiratory diseases cause substantial morbidity and mortality worldwide, with sub-Saharan Africa bearing the greatest burden. Identifying etiologies of respiratory disease is important to inform cost effective treatment, prevention and control strategies. Testing for all of the different pathogens that are potentially associated with respiratory illnesses is challenging. We...
, Georgia; U. S. President's Malaria Initiative, Nairobi , Kenya 2 Authors' addresses: Henry N. Njuguna , Joel M. Montgomery, Leonard Cosmas, Joseph O. Oundo, and Robert F. Breiman , Division of Global Health
In order to better understand respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) epidemiology and burden in tropical Africa, optimal case definitions for detection of RSV cases need to be identified. We used data collected between September 2009 - August 2013 from children aged <5 years hospitalized with acute respiratory Illness at Siaya County Referral Hospital. We evaluated the sensitivity...
Background For disease surveillance, manual data collection using paper-based questionnaires can be time consuming and prone to errors. We introduced smartphone data collection to replace paper-based data collection for an influenza sentinel surveillance system in four hospitals in Kenya. We compared the quality, cost and timeliness of data collection between the smartphone data...
For disease surveillance, manual data collection using paper-based questionnaires can be time consuming and prone to errors. We introduced smartphone data collection to replace paper-based data collection for an influenza sentinel surveillance system in four hospitals in Kenya. We compared the quality, cost and timeliness of data collection between the smartphone data collection...
N. Njuguna Leonard Cosmas John Williamson Dhillon Nyachieo Beatrice Olack John B. Ochieng Newton Wamola Joseph O. Oundo Daniel R. Feikin Eric D. Mintz Robert F. Breima N In the ''Results'' section of
Background Pediatric respiratory disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the developing world. We evaluated a modified respiratory index of severity in children (mRISC) scoring system as a standard tool to identify children at greater risk of death from respiratory illness in Kenya. Materials and Methods We analyzed data from children <5 years old who were...
Influenza-associated disease burden among children in tropical sub-Saharan Africa is not well established, particularly outside of the 2009 pandemic period. We estimated the burden of influenza in children aged 0–4 years through population-based surveillance for influenza-like illness (ILI) and acute lower respiratory tract illness (ALRI). Household members meeting ILI or ALRI...
Background Worldwide, Shigella causes an estimated 160 million infections and >1 million deaths annually. However, limited incidence data are available from African urban slums. We investigated the epidemiology of shigellosis and drug susceptibility patterns within a densely populated urban settlement in Nairobi, Kenya through population-based surveillance. Methods Surveillance...
Background. The epidemiology and burden of influenza remain poorly defined in sub-Saharan Africa. Since 2005, the Kenya Medical Research Institute and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–Kenya have conducted population-based infectious disease surveillance in Kibera, an urban informal settlement in Nairobi, and in Lwak, a rural community in western Kenya. Methods...
