Ephata Kaaya

Ephata Kaaya
  • MD, MSc, PhD, FCP (SA) Hon. FCPath ECSA
  • Professor and Vice Chancellor at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College

About

84
Publications
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2,578
Citations
Current institution
Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College
Current position
  • Professor and Vice Chancellor

Publications

Publications (84)
Article
Full-text available
Background Effective implementation of new curricula requires faculty to be knowledgeable about curriculum goals and have the appropriate pedagogical skills to implement the curriculum, even more so if the new curriculum is being deployed at multiple institutions. In this paper, we describe the process of creating a common faculty development progr...
Article
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Background. The Catholic University of Health and Allied Health Sciences, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College and Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences teamed up to address gaps in the training curricula for medical doctors and nurses with the aim of developing harmonised curricular templates that would be comprehensive an...
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Kaposi's sarcoma and malignant lymphoma are two cancers that are most often associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Recently, other cancers, including cervical cancer, have been associated with AIDS. The role of HIV in the pathogenesis of these malig-nancies is not well understood, and few studies have been done to determine a...
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Full-text available
Background In 2012, the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) embarked on structured competency-based curricula (CBC) for its programmes. Other health profession training institutions continued with their traditional way of teaching and thus causing variability in the competencies of the graduates. We aimed to analyze the exper...
Article
In many low- and middle-income countries, there seems to be a mismatch between graduate skills and healthcare industry requirements due to variability in curricula. With the current increased global demand for competent health profession graduates, harmonizing competency-based curricula (CBC) is necessary to address this mismatch. This paper descri...
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Background: Faced with one of the lowest physician-to-population ratios in the world, the Government of Tanzania is urging its medical schools to train more physicians. The annual number of medical students admitted across the country rose from 55 in the 1990s to 1,680 approved places for the 2015/16 academic year. These escalating numbers strain e...
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Background: There is a great need for physicians in Tanzania. In 2012, there were approximately 0.31 physicians per 10,000 individuals nationwide, with a lower ratio in the rural areas, where the majority of the population resides. In response, universities across Tanzania have greatly increased the enrollment of medical students. Yet evidence sugg...
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Tanzania requires more health professionals equipped to tackle its serious health challenges. When it became an independent university in 2007, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) decided to transform its educational offerings to ensure its students practice competently and contribute to improving population health. In 2008,...
Article
A well-articulated institutional health research agenda can assist essential contributors and intended beneficiaries to visualize the link between research and community health needs, systems outcomes, and national development. In 2011, Tanzania's Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) published a university-wide research agenda...
Article
With a severe shortage of highly trained health professionals, Tanzania must make the best possible use of available human resources and support training institutions to educate more graduates. We highlight the overlooked but significant role of universities in collecting, managing, and using human resources data in Tanzania and in other countries...
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This introduction to Tanzania's health system and acute workforce shortage familiarizes readers with the context in which health professions education takes place. The paper touches on poverty rates, population growth, and characteristics of the health system. The critical shortage of trained health staff is a major challenge facing the health sect...
Article
In 2005, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in Tanzania and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) in the United States joined to form a partnership across all the schools in our institutions. Although our goal is to address the health workforce crisis in Tanzania, we have gained much as institutions. We review th...
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Well-educated and competent health professionals influence the health system in which they work to improve health outcomes, through clinical care and community interventions, and by raising standards of practice and supervision. To prepare these individuals, training institutions must ensure that their faculty members, who design and deliver educat...
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In Tanzania, there is paucity of data for monitoring laboratory medicine including haematology. This therefore calls for audits of practices in haematology and blood transfusion in order to provide appraise practice and devise strategies that would result in improved quality of health care services. This descriptive cross-sectional study which audi...
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Sarah MacFarlane and colleagues share their lessons engaging in educational reform and faculty development with the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania and the University of California San Francisco.
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Cytology is able to deliver rapid accurate diagnoses with minimal equipment and laboratory infrastructure at minimal cost, and this is especially so for fine needle biopsy (FNB), which is a powerful diagnostic tool in medically resource‐poor environments, where histopathology laboratories are small in number and poorly supported financially. The cr...
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Tanzania is among Sub-Saharan countries mostly affected by the HIV and AIDS pandemic, females being more vulnerable than males. HIV infected women appear to have a higher rate of persistent infection by high risk types of human papillomavirus (HPV) strongly associated with high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) and invasive cervical car...
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One of the major needs for medical schools and health systems in less affluent countries is system strengthening through the training and development of faculty, doctors, nurses, and other skilled health care workers. Partnering with medical schools in more affluent countries such as the United States is one potential approach for medical schools i...
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(p<0.001, highly statistically significant, Chi 2 Test) and as expected the majority (68.3%, 112/164) were KS. HHV-8 serology tests by IFA and ELISA were mostly (92.4%, 73/79) concordant. Sensitivity, positive predictive value (PPV), and specificity were 98.6%, 93.5%, and 16.7% for IFA and 93.5%, 98.6%, and 50.0% for ELISA, respectively. All patien...
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In Tanzania, the International Working Formulation [WF] rather than the WHO Classification is still being used in diagnosing malignant lymphomas (ML) and the biological characterization including the HIV/EBV association is sketchy, thus restraining comparison, prognostication and application of established therapeutic protocols. Archival, diagnosti...
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This paper describes accelerating development of programs in global health, particularly in North American academic institutions, and sets this phenomenon in the context of earlier programs in tropical medicine and international health that originated predominantly in Europe. Like these earlier programs, the major focus of the new global health pro...
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The association of the human herpesvirus-8/Kaposi's sarcoma (KS)-associated herpesvirus (HHV-8/KSHV) serology with various malignancies in Tanzania is not currently well established while previous studies were based on either PCR or immunofluorescence assays [IFA] but not with a sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Selected archival...
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HIV infection is reported to be associated with some malignant lymphomas (ML) so called AIDS-related lymphomas (ARL), with an aggressive behavior and poor prognosis. The ML frequency, pathogenicity, clinical patterns and possible association with AIDS in Tanzania, are not well documented impeding the development of preventive and therapeutic strate...
Article
The shortage of qualified health professionals is a major obstacle to achieving better health outcomes in many parts of the world, particularly in Africa. The role of health science universities in addressing this shortage is to provide quality education and continuing professional development opportunities for the healthcare workforce. Academic in...
Article
To evaluate human herpesvirus 8/Kaposi's sarcoma associated herpesvirus (HHV-8/KSHV) viral load in diagnostic, (formalin fixed, paraffinised) biopsies and patient serum during tumour progression of oral and cutaneous AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma (AKS), and endemic Kaposi's sarcoma (EKS) by a sensitive and specific quantitative real time polymerase...
Article
Oral Kaposi's sarcoma (OKS) from Tanzanian patients (78) at Muhimbili National Hospital/Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences corresponding to approximately 10% of KS registered during 1990-2005, were diagnosed (ELISA) as HIV-infected (OAKS) (74/78) and endemic KS (4/78). Females were 69.2% (54/78) with median age 31 and males 30.8% (24/7...
Article
Spindle cells and vascular endothelium in nodular lesions of AIDS associated (epidemic) and endemic Kaposi's sarcoma showed similar immunohistochemical patterns of expression for cell adhesion molecules and extracellular matrix proteins. Spindle cells as well as endothelium also expressed both α5 and αV integrin subunits and ICAM-1 suggesting a pos...
Article
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Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a highly and abnormally vascularized tumor-like lesion affecting the skin, lymphnodes and viscera, which develops from early inflammatory stages of patch/plaque to late, nodular tumors composed predominant of spindle cells (SC). These SC are infected with the Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus or human herpesvirus-8 (K...
Article
Histologic chorioamnionitis has been associated with preterm birth and low birthweight. Our goal was to evaluate the relationship between polymorphonuclear cell and mononuclear cell placental infiltrations and adverse infant outcomes. Data from women who were enrolled in a trial of antibiotics for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1...
Article
It is still unclear if Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a monoclonal cell proliferation or a polyclonal, hyperplastic, reactive process. Reports on KS cytogenetics are few and restricted to late stage disease and cell lines. We analysed 27 KS, early and late, AIDS related (AKS) and endemic (EKS) by laser microdissection, global DNA amplification and compar...
Article
The histogenesis of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) tumor spindle cells (SC) remains controversial but several immunohistochemical studies favor a lymphatic origin. Twenty KS surgical biopsies were analyzed for the coexpression of LANA, CD34, LYVE-1, D2-40, VEGFR-2, VEGFR3 by using double or triple immunostaining. Most of the SC in both early and late KS exp...
Article
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Malignant lymphoma (ML) in HIV patients, are second in frequency to Kaposi's sarcoma (AKS) as AIDS-defining tumors. In Africa the frequency of AIDS-related lymphoma (ARL) is rare and the findings are controversial. Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) lesions are now causally associated with KSHV/HHV-8 but whether African ARL shows this association is not clear....
Article
The human gamma-herpes virus-8 (HHV-8) was first described in AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) tumour samples. In this study, we report comparative studies on paraffin-embedded biopsies of AIDS-related KS (AKS) and endemic KS (EKS) with regard to HHV-8 content as evaluated using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and immunohistochemistry. DNA was ex...
Article
Kaposi sarcoma (KS) is associated with a herpesvirus (HHV-8/KSHV), which expresses a latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA). The histopathology of KS is characterized by angiogenesis, inflammatory cells, and the development of CD34+ tumor spindle cells (SCs). However, the cellular basis for the recruitment and dissemination of HHV-8 during the d...
Article
Human herpesvirus 8 or Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (HHV8/KSHV) is believed to be the most important etiopathological factor of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and some specific types of malignant lymphomas. The diagnostic and prognostic significance of serum viral load in endemic (African) areas is poorly understood. In AIDS-related KS (AKS) it h...
Article
AIDS-associated Kaposi's sarcoma (AKS) is particularly aggressive and it is one of the principal neoplasms in regions of Africa affected by both high endemic HHV8 and epidemic HIV infection. In this study, serum samples from 18 patients with Kaposi's sarcoma from Tanzania, mostly males (n = 15 vs 3), were subjected to analysis with respect to HHV8-...
Article
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With the onset of AIDS increased frequency of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) has been reported. However, there is no case-based comparison of childhood (<14 years) KS before and during the HIV pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Here we report on the Tanzanian cancer registry data of pediatric KS in Tanzania and implications with regard to pathogenic factors. O...
Article
Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a multifocal lesion that occurs predominantly in the skin, most frequently in people infected with HIV-1, and that evolves through early stages (patch and plaque) to a tumor-like late stage (nodular). Both, endemic African (EKS) and AIDS-associated (AKS) KS expressed human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) as shown by PCR. By immunohis...
Article
Full-text available
Kaposi's sarcoma and malignant lymphoma are two cancers that are most often associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Recently, other cancers, including cervical cancer, have been associated with AIDS. The role of HIV in the pathogenesis of these malignancies is not well understood, and few studies have been done to determine an...
Article
Using the Tanzania Cancer Registry, the pattern of childhood malignancies up to the age of 15 years over a period of 22 years (1973-1995) was analysed. Lymphomas were most frequent (38.9%) followed by soft tissue sarcomas (13.1%), retinoblastomas (11.1%) and squamous cell carcinoma (6.7%). The frequency of soft tissue sarcomas is relatively high bu...
Article
Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) presents in four clinicopathological types namely classical/sporadic (CKS), endemic African (EKS), iatrogenic (IKS) and that associated with AIDS (AKS). Recently a putative herpes virus (HHV-8) was described and shown to be present in all four types of KS. The immunological status of patients with EKS has been conflicting. In...
Article
The Tanzania cancer registry recorded 39,920 cancer cases from 1968 to 1995. Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) constituted 4% of the cases of which 79.9% were males. During the AIDS period changes in the demographics of KS were noted showing an increase in the diagnosis of KS (p=0.0001). There was an overall decrease in the mean age from 41.7 years before to 3...
Article
Analysis by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and serological studies have demonstrated a close association between the novel human herpes virus, Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpes virus (KSHV) or human herpes virus-8 (HHV-8) and the development of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). To clarify the role of HHV-8 in KS pathogenesis, we investigated at the cellular...
Article
Analysis by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and serological studies have demonstrated a close association between the novel human herpes virus, Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpes virus (KSHV) or human herpes virus-8 (HHV-8) and the development of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). To clarify the role of HHV-8 in KS pathogenesis, we investigated at the cellular...
Article
Spindle cells and vascular endothelium in nodular lesions of AIDS associated (epidemic) and endemic Kaposi's sarcoma showed similar immunohistochemical patterns of expression for cell adhesion molecules and extracellular matrix proteins. Spindle cells as well as endothelium also expressed both alpha 5 and alpha V integrin subunits and ICAM-1 sugges...
Article
The presence of human Kaposi's sarcoma associated herpesvirus-like sequences (KSHV) was examined in different epidemiological variants of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and in KS-derived cell cultures by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). KSHV DNA was present in all tumor biopsies of AIDS-associated KS (59 biopsies), endemic KS (26 biopsies; 21 African endemi...
Article
The immunophenotype of spindle cells in epidemic, endemic, and classic (sporadic) Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) lesions was defined by the demonstration of various cell markers and compared with that of KS-derived cell lines. No significant histological or immunophenotypic differences were observed between the three clinical types of KS at comparable stage...
Article
Sections of 18 malaria-infected placentas were stained with haematoxylin and eosin, periodic acid and methenamine silver, and immunohistochemically with monoclonal antibodies against human common leukocyte antigen, CLA (CD 45), B cells (CD 20, L 26), T cells (CD 45RO, UCHL-1) and collagen IV. Parasitized erythrocytes accumulated in the maternal vil...
Article
The immunophenotype of spindle cells in epidemic, endemic, and classic (sporadic) Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) lesions was defined by the demonstration of various cell markers and compared with that of KS-derived cell lines. No significant histological or immunophenotypic differences were observed between the three clinical types of KS at comparable stage...
Article
Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a previously rare, tumour-like lesion of controversial biological nature. KS has since the early 1980s become frequent in patients with AIDS, particularly in homosexuals. KS is also endemic in Central Africa predominantly in otherwise healthy men but also in women and children. Recently, evidence for the presence of novel,...
Article
Thymuses from 22 cynomolgus monkeys infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIVsm) developed characteristic cortical and medullary changes including formation of B-cell follicles (8/21) and accumulation of virus immune complexes. Advanced thymic histopathology was correlated with more pronounced immunodeficiency. SIVsm provirus was detected by...
Article
B-cell lymphomas developed frequently (approx. 40%) in SIVsm (SMM3) immunosuppressed monkeys and were mostly extranodal, aggressive and all associated with an EBV-related simian herpes virus operationally designated herpes virus Macaca fascicularis (HVMF-I). Lymphoma tissues from 21 monkeys were studied by PCR and DNA PAGE for mono/oligoclonality o...
Article
Thymuses from 22 cynomolgus monkeys infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIVsm) developed characteristic cortical and medullary changes including formation of B-cell follicles (8/21) and accumulation of virus immune complexes. Advanced thymic histopathology was correlated with more pronounced immunodeficiency. SIVsm provirus was detected by...
Article
Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) was up to the 1980's seen as a rare indolent sporadic disease in Southern Europe and as an endemic disease in East and Central Africa. With the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic a more aggressive, disseminated type of KS was recognized in HIV infected people with AIDS. Interestingly, KS has not been reported in Indians living in...
Article
Thirty-three out of 39 cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) infected with SIVsm (strain SMM-3) developed various pathologies similar to those seen in human AIDS. Lymphadenopathy was frequently seen (72%) and was characterized by hyperplasia followed by involution of follicle/germinal centres due to follicular dendritic cell (FDC) destruction co...
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Full-text available
Simian-immunodeficiency-virus(SIV)-infected cynomolgus monkeys develop B-cell lymphomas in approximately one third of the cases. We have now studied the expression of cynomolgus-Epstein-Barr-virus(cyno-EBV) nuclear antigens in 13 cyno-EBV-carrying SIVsm-associated monkey lymphomas and established cell lines from 3 of these tumors. Immunoblots of ce...
Article
Crossreactivity of antibodies to human leucocyte antigens with lymphoid tissues of cynomolgus monkeys was studied by immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting. Of a total of 54 clusters of differentiation (CD) antigens, 39 were expressed essentially with the same immunostaining patterns in the monkey as in human lymphoid tissues. By immunoblotting L2...
Article
In India a 35-year-old prostitute who had come from Nepal 10 years earlier presented at JJ Group of Hospitals in Bombay with a nodular type of cutaneous Kaposis Sarcoma (KS) on her right leg. In 2 weeks time it spread to her left chin right forearm left leg gingiva and hard palate and she had developed severe edema of the leg. She also exhibited mo...
Article
Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) results from a T cell-dependent autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells. In the present study, expression of adhesion molecule ICAM-1 (CD54) on pancreatic beta cells was studied in normal, obese hyperglycemic (ob/ob), and nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice. Freshly isolated pancreatic b...
Article
Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) results from a T cell-dependent autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing pancreatic β cells. In the present study, expression of adhesion molecule ICAM-1 (CD54) on pancreatic β cells was studied in normal, obese hyperglycemic (ob/ob), and nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice. Freshly isolated pancreatic β cells...
Article
Full-text available
High-grade malignant nonHodgkin's lymphomas--five lymphoblastic, three pleomorphic, and two immunoblastic--developed in 10/25 cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) followed for up to 746 d after infection with simian immunodeficiency virus, strain SIVsm. These lymphomas were shown to be associated with an Epstein-Barr (EB)-like cynomolgus B-lymp...
Article
Full-text available
Malignant lymphomas associated with human (HIV) and simian (SIV) immunodeficiency virus infections are reviewed and compared. Recent observation of a high frequency of lymphomas in a series of cynomolgus macaques, highly immunodeficient after infection with SIVsm(smm3) are described. In addition to the increased frequency in human and monkey AIDS,...
Article
To study the pathogenicity of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIVsm) in cynomolgus monkeys in order to establish an animal model for human AIDS. Thirty-three cynomolgus monkeys were monitored for more than 2 years following experimental infection with SIVsm. All the macaques became SIV-infected, as demonstrated by virus recovery from peripheral bloo...
Article
Comparative studies of ploidy and proliferative activity of spindle cells in sections of 20 (skin, 17; lymph node, 3) biopsy specimens from African patients, 10 with endemic Kaposi's sarcoma (EKS) and 10 with AIDS-associated Kaposi's sarcoma (AKS) were performed by histopathology, feulgen-based DNA measurement and proliferating cell nuclear antigen...
Article
In a series of 33 cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) experimentally infected with Simian Immunodeficiency virus (SIV), strain smm3, 13 animals developed malignant Non-Hodgkin lymphomas. These lymphomas presented with unusual primary manifestations like in the orbita, testes, and brain. The morphological features and immunophenotyping identifi...
Article
A non-opportunistic, generalized giant cell disease (GCD) was found in 12 out of 25 (48%) cynomologus monkeys infected with SIVsm. Most organs were affected notably the lymph nodes (LN), spleen, gut, liver, lungs and CNS. The multinucleated GC varied considerably in cell size and in the number and cytoplasmic distribution of the nuclei. Immunohisto...
Article
Full-text available
Malignant lymphomas were observed in 38% (9 of 24) of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-infected cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) 5 to 15 months after inoculation with SIV strain SMM3. Lymphomagenesis in the SIV-infected monkeys was not related directly to the SIV-infectious dose given. All SIV-infected animals developed severe immunodefi...

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