Professional Experience:
2011 – Present: Consultant Medical Microbiologist and Virologist at the Institute for Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers and Emergent Pathogens (IVEP), Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH), Nigeria. ISTH is a tertiary healthcare facility in Nigeria, the Centre of Excellence for the Management and Control of Lassa fever and other viral hemorrhagic fever (VHFs).
During the past 12 years, I applied my diverse set of technical and professional skills to initially, set up and manage the IVEP diagnostic and research laboratory and later functioned as the Director of the institute.
I coordinated diagnostic services, case management, infection prevention and control, disease surveillance, and clinical research development and implementation in this capacity. I was actively involved in stakeholders’ engagement at the national and internal levels, including advocacy, policy formulation, budgeting, and fund mobilization.
I also served on several technical working groups for WHO, Africa Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET), Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC), and the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) in providing technical support for the development of tools, guidelines, SOPs, and training materials for the diagnosis, case management, infection prevention and control and surveillance of Lassa fever, Ebola, COVID-19, and other infectious diseases.
I am the Principal Investigator and pioneer Director of the Infectious Diseases Biobank at ISTH, which has, successfully undertaken the collection of over 10,000 biological reference materials to support research on the development of Lassa fever and COVID -19 diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccine trials. The biobank is globally recognized and affiliated with the European Viral Archive Global (EVAg), Biobanking and Cohort Network (BCNet), and the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER)
2018: Laboratory Technical Officer at WHO South Sudan. I was instrumental in the setting up of the first molecular diagnostic laboratory in the country as part of the WHO Ebola response team.
2015 – 2016: Worked as Infection Prevention and Control Consultant and also as Field Coordinator in charge of case investigation, disease surveillance, and response. WHO Ebola Response -Liberia
2005 -2011: Resident doctor and Registrar at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria.