The U.S. Department of Defense has conducted research in Kenya at the invitation of the Kenyan government since 1969. WRAIR's expeditionary laboratory, the U.S. Army Medical Research Directorate–Africa (USAMRD-A), is on the campus of the Kenyan Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) in Nairobi. All MRHP activities in Africa, including PEPFAR, are conducted in collaboration with USAMRD-A.
USAMRD-A works with partner research sites across sub-Saharan Africa, and its activities are known in many local communities as the Walter Reed Program. They collaborate with host governments and communities to advance research on endemic diseases such as malaria and HIV, and to help identify and develop countermeasures for emerging infectious disease threats such as Ebola and Lassa fever.