Key messages from recent international HIV conferences

Elizabeth Irungu is Regional Technical Advisor for Implementation Science and PrEP service delivery at Jhpiego, Kenya. She received her medical degree from the University of Nairobi and has an MPH (epidemiology) and PhD (global health: implementation science) from the University of Washington, Seattle. She has over 15 years of experience conducting HIV prevention research.

Elizabeth has led and/or participated in cutting-edge multi-country HIV prevention studies, including the Partners PrEP Study, one of the clinical trials that provided registrational evidence for oral PrEP for HIV prevention. Other notable studies include the Partners Demonstration Project and the Partners Scale Up Project, which facilitated introduction of oral PrEP in Kenya. These projects have been in collaboration with the International Clinical Research Centre at the University of Washington, Seattle, and Kenya Medical Research Institute, with funding from the NIH and the Gates Foundation. Currently, she is protocol co-chair for the CATALYST study, the flagship project under MOSAIC, funded by USAID, to accelerate introduction and scale up of new and emerging biomedical prevention products, including the dapivirine vaginal ring and long-acting cabotegravir.

Elizabeth is committed to translation of research findings into policy and programmes. She has contributed in various working groups and meetings at the World Health Organization and served as co-chair for the Cabotegravir for HIV Prevention Guideline Development Group. She is a member of the PrEP technical working group in Kenya.

Kenneth Ngure is an Associate Professor of Global Health and Dean of the School of Public Health of the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya. He is an Affiliate Associate Professor of the Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Visiting Scientist at Kenyatta National Hospital and, recently, a visiting Professor at the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health. He is also a member of the Expert Committee on Clinical Trials of the Kenyan Pharmacy and Poisons Board.

Kenneth is a member of the Behavioral Research Group of the Microbicides Trials Network (MTN), the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Network (IMPAACT), the Socio-Behavioral and Structural Working Group of the HIV Prevent Trials Network (HPTN), and Office of HIV/AIDS Network Coordination (HANC) Cross-Network Behavioral Science Consultative Group (BSCG). He is Pillar 1 co-lead for Microbicide R&D to Advance HIV Prevention Technologies through Responsive Innovation and eXcellence (MATRIX). These groups are directed towards the development of new biomedical strategies to prevent HIV.

Kenneth is an HIV prevention expert, having been a site investigator in the landmark Partners PrEP trial, which was followed by the Partners (PrEP) Demonstration Project and, more recently, the Partners Scale-UP Project. He is also a member of the PrEP Technical Working Group of the Ministry of Health, Kenya. Recently, Kenneth co-chaired a protocol (MTN-034) to evaluate the safety of and adherence to a vaginal matrix ring containing dapivirine and oral emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate in an African adolescent female population. He is co-lead on a randomized trial that tests how HIV self-testing might support PrEP delivery among men and women in Kenya (R01MH113572) and is currently leading the behavioural component of several other multinational studies that are looking into simplifying PrEP delivery.

Kenneth has over 25 years of public health leadership experience gained in diverse HIV and AIDS research settings in central, eastern, southern and western Africa. This includes working as a Program Director for the Organization of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA – Kenyan Chapter) and consulting for organizations that include the World Health Organization. He was recently re-elected to represent Africa on the Governing Council of the IAS, where he also sits on the Executive Board. Kenneth has authored or co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed conference abstracts and 160 peer-reviewed manuscripts.