Bacterial and Viral Infection
Epidemiology
Neonatal sepsis, a leading cause of infant death, occurs when a baby younger than 28 days old has a life-threatening response to an infection. Dr Mukunya is studying the affectiveness of ‘BabyGel’, an alcohol-base hand rub, in preventing sepsis and other reactions to infectious disease.
Infections are a leading cause of infant deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. Accessible, affordable, and sustainable interventions to prevent neonatal sepsis are urgently needed.
A previous clinical trial, the 'BabyGel' trial, was set up to determine if alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR) could prevent sepsis and other responses to infectious disease among 6,000 pregnant women and their infants in Uganda. Over five years, Dr David Mukunya and his team from Busitema University (Uganda) followed these cases and created an extensive database of results.
Now, Dr Mukunya will be working with researchers from the University of Liverpool and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to develop data analysis and reporting skills for cluster randomised controlled trials. Dr Mukunya will attend training on advanced epidemiology and build networks across the University of Liverpool.
Additionally, the team will continue developing a sub-study comparing the neurodevelopment of infants hospitalized with neonatal sepsis and healthy infants at 1.5 years or older, with a hope to develop future studies.
Alongside his mentors at the University of Liverpool, Dr Mukunya also plans to identify and initiate a grant application to monitor the progress of infants from the BabyGel trial.