Putting an end to AIDS in Kenya
As a young doctor working at the Kenya and Uganda border, Elizabeth decided to pursue research on STIs when she realized how much donated blood was thrown away after testing positive for HIV, leaving people without life-saving transfusions. She has since become a global leader in the treatment and prevention of HIV and other STIs, as well as women’s health. Elizabeth’s clinical trials have uncovered new ways to prevent HIV using daily pills and microbicides. She has also led programs that have tested more than 1.5 million people for HIV and that treat tens of thousands who are living with the virus.
Elizabeth has helped to develop a rigorous research environment at Kenya Medical Research Institute, one of the leading centers of excellence in health research in Africa, and in Kenya generally, that ensures risk in studies is appropriately dealt with and transparency maintained. A graduate of the collaborative training relationship between UW SPH and Kenyan institutions, Elizabeth has become a beloved mentor to students, many from her home country of Kenya and other parts of Africa.
Affiliations: Senior Principal Clinical Research Scientist, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI); Research Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Washington; Research Professor, Department of Global Health, UW Schools of Public Health and Medicine; Co-director, KEMRI-University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Infectious Disease Research Training Program; Volunteer Professor Faculty, Department of Obstetrics Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, UCSF; Honorary Lecturer, Aga Khan University; Faculty member, Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Culture, Sind Institute for Urology and Transplantation; Honorary Lecturer, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Maseno University; Chair, Bioethics Society of Kenya; Fellow, African Academy of Sciences