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The composition of mammalian gut microbiomes is highly conserved within species, yet the mechanisms by which microbiome composition is transmitted and maintained within lineages of wild animals remain unclear. Mutually compatible hypotheses exist, including that microbiome fidelity results from inherited dietary habits, shared environmental exposure, morphophysiological filtering and/or maternal effects. Interspecific hybrids are a promising system in which to interrogate the determinants of microbiome composition because hybrids can decouple traits and processes that are otherwise co-inherited in their parent species. We used a population of free-living hybrid zebras (Equus quagga × grevyi) in Kenya to evaluate the roles of these four mechanisms in regulating microbiome composition. We analysed faecal DNA for both the trnL-P6 and the 16S rRNA V4 region to characterize the diets and microbiomes of the hybrid zebra and of their parent species, plains zebra (E. quagga) and Grevy's zebra (E. grevyi). We found that both diet and microbiome composition clustered by species, and that hybrid diets and microbiomes were largely nested within those of the maternal species, plains zebra. Hybrid microbiomes were less variable than those of either parent species where they co-occurred. Diet and microbiome composition were strongly correlated, although the strength of this correlation varied between species. These patterns are most consistent with the maternal-effects hypothesis, somewhat consistent with the diet hypothesis, and largely inconsistent with the environmental-sourcing and morphophysiological-filtering hypotheses. Maternal transmittance likely operates in conjunction with inherited feeding habits to conserve microbiome composition within species., (© 2024 The Authors. Molecular Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Inferring HIV transmission networks from HIV sequences is gaining popularity in the field of HIV molecular epidemiology. However, HIV sequences are often analyzed at distance from those affected by HIV epidemics, namely without the involvement of communities most affected by HIV. These remote analyses often mean that knowledge is generated in absence of lived experiences and socio-economic realities that could inform the ethical application of network-derived information in 'real world' programmes. Procedures to engage communities are noticeably absent from the HIV molecular epidemiology literature. Here we present our team's protocol for engaging community activists living in Nairobi, Kenya in a knowledge exchange process – The CIPHR Project (Community Insights in Phylogenetic HIV Research). Drawing upon a community-based participatory approach, our team will (1) explore the possibilities and limitations of HIV molecular epidemiology for key population programmes, (2) pilot a community-based HIV molecular study, and (3) co-develop policy guidelines on conducting ethically safe HIV molecular epidemiology. Critical dialogue with activist communities will offer insight into the potential uses and abuses of using such information to sharpen HIV prevention programmes. The outcome of this process holds importance to the development of policy frameworks that will guide the next generation of the global response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial technology tools have been utilised to create readily available mobile loan platforms for urban-based, daily-wage earners in Kenya. From a financial lending perspective, this development signals greater inclusion and equality in formal bank financing systems. In this paper, however, we examine mobile loans and their repayment from the perspective of women who sell sex in Nairobi, drawing upon the qualitative findings of two community-based studies conducted in close collaboration with sex worker-led organisations serving the sexual health needs of their peers. Our findings suggest that mobile loans may undermine the financial security strategies and economic independence of sex workers, leaving these women in more precarious economic circumstances, which have been shown in other instances to have effects on sexual risk taking and vulnerability to HIV infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adolescent girls' risk of school dropout and reproductive health (RH) challenges may be exacerbated by girls' attitudes toward their bodies and inability to manage their menstruation. We assessed effects of sanitary pad distribution and RH education on girls in primary grade 7 in Kilifi, Kenya. Methods: A cluster randomized controlled trial design was used. Eligible clusters were all non-boarding schools in three sub-counties in Kilifi County that had a minimum of 25 girls enrolled in primary grade 7. 140 primary schools, 35 per arm, were randomly assigned to one of four study arms: (1) control; (2) sanitary pad distribution; (3) RH education; or (4) both sanitary pad distribution and RH education. Outcomes were school attendance, school engagement, RH knowledge and attitudes, gender norms, and self-efficacy. For outcomes measured both at baseline and endline, difference-in-differences (DID) models were estimated and for outcomes without baseline data available, analysis of covariance models were used. Results: The study enrolled 3489 randomly selected girls in primary grade 7, with a mean age of 14.4 (SD 1.5). Girls in arms 2 and 4 received on average 17.6 out of 20 packets of sanitary pads and girls in arms 3 and 4 participated on average in 21 out of 25 RH sessions. Ninety-four percent of the baseline sample was interviewed at the end of the intervention with no differential attrition by arm. There was no evidence of an effect on primary school attendance on arm 2 (coefficient [coef] 0.37, 95% CI − 0.73, 1.46), arm 3 (coef 0.14, 95% CI − 0.99, 1.26) or arm 4 (coef 0.58, 95% CI −.37, 1.52). There was increased positive RH attitudes for girls in arm 3 (DID coef. 0.63, 95% CI 0.40–0.86) and arm 4 (DID coef. 0.85, 95% CI 0.64, − 1.07). There was also an increase in RH knowledge, gender norms and self-efficacy in arms 3 and 4. Conclusions: The findings suggest that neither sanitary pad distribution nor RH education, on their own or together, were sufficient to improve primary school attendance. However, as the RH education intervention improved RH outcomes, the evidence suggests that sanitary pad distribution and RH education can be positioned in broader RH programming for girls. Trial registration: ISRCTN, ISRCTN10894523. Registered 22 August 2017—Retrospectively registered, http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN10894523 Plain language summary: Adolescent girls face a range of challenges that may compromise their chances of completing school or their sexual and reproductive health. These challenges can be even further complicated by girls' feelings of shame about their bodies, in particular about menstruation, or their lack of sanitary products to help them manage menstruation. This study sought out to assess if providing girls in grade 7 in a rural, coastal area of Kenya with sanitary pads and sex education would alleviate some of those challenges. One hundred and forty schools were included in the study and 35 each were randomly assigned to one of the following program packages: (1) standard government provision of pads and health education; (2) regular monthly provision of sanitary pads; (3) sex education; or (4) both regular monthly provision of sanitary pads and sex education. The study found that none of the three program packages had an impact on school attendance, however those that participated in the sex education felt more positively about menstruation, knew more about sexual and reproductive health, had more equitable gender norms and were more self-confident at the end of the program. The study results show that addressing girls' menstrual health challenges are important, but are better positioned as part of comprehensive sexuality education programs addressing stigma and shame associated with menstruation, access to menstrual products, inequitable gender norms and sexual and reproductive health knowledge gaps, as opposed to a girls education intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Kenya, globally circulating HIV surveillance techniques are implicated in an emergent experimental terrain that merges scientific interest with health administration agendas. Sex worker activists reroute and repurpose this technocratic knowledge to more precisely pinpoint and defy the undemocratic imperatives of an encroaching experimental order that aims to govern the health of key populations. Reconstructing the conditions of emergence of these evidentiary politics reveals growing interdependencies between sex workers and scientific and technical experts as they are brought into increasing interaction with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic, and its attendant responses, has led to massive health, social, and economic challenges on a global scale. While, so far, having a relatively low burden of COVID-19 infection, it is the response in lower- and middle- income countries that has had particularly dire consequences for impoverished populations such as sex workers, many of whom rely on regular income in the informal economic sector to survive. This commentary captures the challenges in Kenya posed by daily curfews and lost economic income, coupled with further changes to sex work that increase potential exposure to infection, stigmatisation, violence, and various health concerns. It also highlights the ways in which communities and programmes have demonstrated resourcefulness in responding to this unprecedented disruption in order to emerge healthy when COVID-19, and the measures to contain it, subside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]