Two START Research Assistants Named Fogarty Fellows

START is proud to announce that Research Assistants Jess Long and Kennedy Maring Muni were named Fogarty Fellows for 2017-2018. The Fogarty Global Health Fellowship Program is an 11-month clinical research training program for post-doctorate trainees and doctoral students in the health professions, sponsored by the NIH’s Fogarty International Center (FIC) in partnership with several NIH Institutes and Centers. Read more about Jess and Kennedy’s projects below:

Jessica Long

PhD Student, Epidemiology  

Jess will be traveling to Lima, Peru to complete her dissertation research investigating the sexual networks of transgender women. In Peru, HIV prevalence is low in the general population, but highly concentrated in subpopulations, with trans women at the highest risk: studies estimate up to 50% prevalence of HIV among trans women in Lima. While we know that trans women have high rates of risk behavior such as unprotected sex, sex work, and socioeconomic instability, this doesn’t fully explain the disparity in HIV prevalence compared to the general population and other high risk groups, such as men who have sex with men (MSM). Unlike MSM, trans women in Lima have sexual partners outside of their community, but we don’t know who these partners are. To understand why HIV prevalence is so high among this community, Jess will be using multiple approaches, including phylogenetic analyses and a prospective survey study, to characterize the partners of trans women and investigate what factors are associated with HIV transmission. Jess hopes that this research will allow for better targeting of HIV prevention interventions to help curb the epidemic among this community.

Kennedy Maring Muni

PhD Student, Epidemiology  

Kennedy’s dissertation research focuses on helmet use and road traffic crashes and injuries among young Ugandans working as motorcycle taxi drivers (locally known as boda boda) in Kampala, Uganda. As part of this research, Kennedy will work closely with the injury team in Makerere University, Uganda. Collaboratively they will develop the protocol and tools for the study. They will use a prospective cohort study design to assess the impact of an Uber-like motorcycle taxi service known as SafeBoda[1], on the incidence of road traffic crashes and injuries among motorcycle taxi drivers. The team will also assess helmet use and knowledge of common traffic signs and laws using a cross-sectional study design. In both study designs, they will compare outcomes in SafeBoda drivers to regular drivers (those not enrolled in SafeBoda).

[1] SafeBoda, an Uber-like motorcycle taxi service, was launched in 2014, to offer an innovative transportation service using boda-boda. The service provides training, helmets, and vehicle maintenance to its drivers.