Dr Anna Van Eijk

Biography

Anna van Eijk is a Senior Clinical Research Fellow at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) who trained at the Free University of Amsterdam. She has worked as a clinical doctor in England, the Netherlands and Uganda. Anna joined the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention at the Kenya Medical Research Institute in western Kenya in 1997, where she worked on studies involving malaria in pregnancy and HIV-1 infection. She obtained an MSc (London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene) and PhD (University of Amsterdam) in epidemiology. She joined the Malaria Epidemiology unit in 2009 to support the Malaria in Pregnancy program and to assist with literature reviews and the maintenance of the Malaria in Pregnancy library. She is also involved in women’s health and menstruation.

Research interests

Anna is interested in Malaria in Pregnancy and the preservation and utilisation of data for answering research questions that may be hard to answer from individual studies, e.g. the effect of resistance to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine on effectiveness of intermittent preventive treatment to reduce effects of malaria in pregnancy. Additionally, she is interested in methods to deal with menstruation and with her team to make reviews which inform girls, women, and policy makers about all the options for menstruation and their benefits and disadvantages.

Teaching

Anna teaches sexual and reproductive health at LSTM and provides thesis support for masters students.

Selected research publications

Sub-optimal menstrual materials and vaginal microbiome disruption in women relying on sex for livelihood – Journal: Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology – Published: 12th January 2026

Beyond malaria: can intermittent preventive treatment with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine reduce the number of small vulnerable newborns globally? – Journal: The Lancet Global Health – Published: 9th December 2025

Pregnancy Intentions and Maternal Health Behaviours: Observational Study in 18 African Countries – Journal: BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology – Published: 1st December 2025

‘Because she doesn’t have a voice’. Perceptions of rejection amongst girls who have dropped out of school in rural western Kenya – Journal: International Journal of Adolescence and Youth – Published: 23rd October 2025

The impact of sulfadoxine–pyrimethamine resistance on the effectiveness of intermittent preventive treatment for the prevention of malaria in pregnancy in Africa: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis – Journal: The Lancet Infectious Diseases – Published: 14th July 2025

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