Prf. Dr. Ruth Nduati

Ruth Nduati is a Professor of Paediatrics at the School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, University of Nairobi. She is a Paediatrician and Epidemiologist who has taught at the University of Nairobi for many years.  Her major achievement is her contribution to the understanding of the epidemiology and biology of breast milk transmission of HIV and in integration of prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV in resource constrained settings.

Prof Nduati has written extensively on the subject of MTCT of HIV in peer-reviewed articles, textbooks and reports of research findings.  With other colleagues Prof Nduati developed a manual to train health workers on PMTCT.  These materials have been used extensively to train in-service and pre-service health workers and have been used to make a unified Kenyan PMTCT curriculum.  Prof Nduati is also engaged in operational research to support the translation of scientific advances in PMTCT into standards of care in Kenya and is the Principal Investigator of a PEPFAR grant to NARESA a non-governmental NGO in Kenya that is working with 12 Kenyan Districts to implement PMTCT in government health facilities. 

Prof Nduati has presented her work in many national and international forums and has been guest speaker at international HIV/AIDS meetings.  She also serves as a member of the TAC/HIV, an advisory panel to the World Health Organization HIV unit in Geneva.  She is also a long-standing member The Ghent International Working Group on Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV, Kenya Paediatric Association, and the Kenya Medical Association.

Prof Nduati has served as a member of the Kenya Medical Research Institute Board of Management and is the immediate past Chairmen of the Board.  During her tenure the institution developed a Strategic plan that helped the institution strengthen the focus on research, provide grants to research staff, adopt a performance based promotion criteria, develop a proposal for the instituion to be commissioned as a degree awarding instituiton as allowed for in the 2012 University Act.  The institution also developed and  implemented a plan to place itself strategically to serve in the context of a devolved government, to build capacity for medical research in the Counties. 

Currently Prof Nduati is serving as the Chair of the Keriri Women’s University of Science and Technology Council (KWUST) where she is providing leadership and technical support towards award of Charter.  KWUST is an unique institution in that it seeks to provide university education in science and technology in an all women’s institution.  

  Prof Nduati serves on the International Monitoring Board for the Global Polio elimination initiative.  Prof Nduati was invited to this panel by the WHO Director General, Margret Chan and the Executive Director of the United Nations Emmergency Childrens Fund (UNICEF), Mr Anthony Lake.  This unique panel led by Sir Ian Donaldson, Chairman of the National Patient Safety Agency in the United Kingdom and former Chief Medical Officer for England.  The Independent Monitoring Board assesses progress towards the attainment of a polio-free world. The IMB convenes on a quarterly basis (beginning in December 2010) to independently evaluate progress towards each of the major milestones of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) Strategic Plan on the basis of polio epidemiology, poliovirus virology, standard performance indicators and other programme data. Additionally, the IMB provides assessments of the risks posed by existing funding gaps.

Currently, Prof Ruth Nduati in collaboration with Prof Walter Jaoko from the Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Nairobi is leading an initiative to develop a Physician Researcher Training program in the School of Medicine which could be the first such program in Africa.  This activity has been funded by a Fogarty training grant  (1D71TW009616-01).  Epidemiology course developed in this inititive is the core material for the  training advanced research skills to juniour faculty (tutorial fellows, lecturers and seniour lecturers) in the College of Health Sciences who are supported by the Partnership for Health Research Training in Kenya (P-HERT) a Fogarty funded grant led by Professor Dalton Wamalwa (1D43TW010141).  

 Prof Ruth Nduati core duties are training undergrdauate and postgraduate doctors in paediatrics and child health, and a consultant Paediatrician at the Kenyatta National Hospital.  In this capacity she has supervised more than 30 Masters Dissertation, and several doctoral thesis.  Prof Ruth Nduati maintains an active research collaboration with various colleagues at the Global Health Program of the University of Washington and through this have been able to carry out research and mentor several generation of students in researchers and who are now leaders in their own right.