Dr Olubukola T. Idoko is paediatrician, and works as a clinical scientist at the Unit. She has over 15 years of experience in clinical paediatrics, with a focus on infectious diseases and new-born care. She is a PhD candidate at the Ludwig Maximillian University in Munich Germany. In addition to her role at the Unit, she provides support for medical student training as a lecturer at the University of The Gambia.
Driven by the stark health inequities in her early days of practice and overwhelming disease burden particularly in young infants, her current research interests centre on vaccines for paediatric infectious disease and infectious disease epidemiology. She has been involved in - and led - the conduct of several clinical trials, including driving the setup of clinical trial sites, and is author of several articles and book chapters. Her passion is to optimize the use of existing disease prevention interventions using approaches relevant to varied settings and demographics and train qualitative health care professionals for the sub-Saharan region. Dr Idoko currently sits on an advisory group of experts for the World Health Organization on measles and rubella vaccine.
During the festival, she will present on her work supporting testing for vaccines relevant to Africa. She will also share experiences on generating data to support new vaccine development and optimal use of the vaccines and interventions we already have, as we contribute to a global effort to limit childhood infectious disease.