Mainga Hamaluba

My early research career focused on the epidemiology of pneumococcal carriage and disease in Nepal and Oxfordshire with the Oxford Vaccine Group. This involved carriage studies  evaluating novel methods of transporting nasopharyngeal specimens from rural parts of Nepal to central laboratories and looking at carriage rates in all age group in Oxfordshire following the introduction of the 7-valent pneumococcal vaccine (PCV-7) in Oxfordshire and prior to established immunisation in infants with PCV13. Major achievements include evaluating the immunogenicity and optimal schedule for delivery of PCV10 in the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) schedule in Nepal. This informed the current vaccine schedule (2 dose priming and 1 booster) currently used in Nepal.

After completing my clinical training I returned to the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme as a postdoctoral researcher working in the area of  neonatal health. Since September 2017 I have been heading the Clinical Trials Facility that conducts vaccine and drug trials and trials that assess clinical interventions in critically ill children and neonates. We have a portfolio of clinical trials that span several major established areas of research: critical care, HIV& HIV related research, paediatric and adolescent neurodevelopmental and mental health, sickle cell disease and blackwater fever, malnutrition. Developing research areas in our department include antimicrobial resistance and neonatal health.

My personal research interests are centred around vaccines against malaria, yellow fever and enteric pathogens as well as volunteer infection studies. I also have an interest in evaluating established and novel interventions in critically unwell children and neonates in our setting.