Stories, updates and learning from across the MIRNA network

Every year, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) fills paediatric wards with babies who struggle to breathe, but now a vaccine that protects them before birth is now licensed in Kenya.   At the Annual Scientific Congress of the Association of Progressive Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Kenya (APOG-K) in Nairobi, a panel of paediatric, obstetric and midwifery experts set […]

Professor Imran Nisar has spent more than thirteen years working at the intersection of epidemiology and paediatrics, an unusual vantage point from which to watch a country’s vaccine landscape evolve.   As Associate Professor (Research) and Vice Chair (Research) in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at Aga Khan University, his research has ranged across […]

For decades, Ethiopia has fought pneumonia with the tools it had.  These tools include using vaccines against pneumococcus, Haemophilus influenzae type B and measles, each rolled into the infant immunisation schedule at six, ten and fourteen weeks. Yet the disease remains the leading cause of illness and death among children under five in the country, […]

Professor Hadiza Galadanci was the first female obstetrician trained in Nigeria’s Kano region, and she has spent close to four decades combining frontline clinical work with research that has shaped policy across West Africa.   She holds an MBBS from Ahmadu Bello University, a Master’s in Reproductive and Sexual Health Research from University College London, […]

If you want to understand why some maternal vaccines succeed and others stall before they’ve even begun, Dr Hellen Barsosio has a starting point that might surprise you.   Dr Barsosio a Principal Clinical Research Scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), working alongside the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.   She also leads Kenya’s arm […]

Despite remarkable progress in child survival, newborn deaths remain a major challenge in Bangladesh. According to recent estimates , about 60,000 newborns die each year in the country, with nearly three-quarters of these deaths occurring in the first week of life. Many of these deaths are caused by infections that strike before infants are old […]

Respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV, is a common virus that most adults mistake for a mild cold when affected. Common symptoms such as a runny nose, slight cough, or a low-grade fever rarely cause concern. But for babies under 12 months of age, RSV can turn deadly. In newborns, severe RSV infection attacks the […]