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Obiageli Nnodu: sickle cell disease in Africa's largest nation

Obiageli Nnodu: sickle cell disease in Africa's largest nation
Obiageli E. Nnodu is Professor of Haematology and Blood Transfusion and Director, Centre of Excellence for Sickle Cell Disease Research and Training, University of Abuja and the National Coordinator, American Society of Hematology Consortium for Newborn Screening in Africa for Sickle Cell Disease as well as the Nigeria Principal Investigator for NIH funded Sickle Pan African Research Consortium (SPARCO).

Prof Nnodu, is a UK Foreign Office Chevening Scholar, a highly experienced researcher who has carried out many multi-institutional, multi-national research projects including a multilateral DFID DELPhe Project.

With a current population quickly approaching 230 million, Nigeria is Africa's largest nation and has the world's highest incidence of sickle cell disease. Each year, about 150 000 Nigerian children are born with the condition. For a long time, the country did not have a well articulated plan to contend with sickle cell disease. But this changed about 14 years ago when Obiageli Nnodu was invited to help articulate a strategy for the control and management of the disease. Preparing for this endeavour led her to the First Global Congress on Sickle Cell Disease in Accra, Ghana, in 2010 where she observed a lack of coordination and communication among various individuals and non-governmental organisations involved with sickle cell disease in Nigeria. Her continuing efforts in combating the disease now see her serving as the Founding Director of the Centre of Excellence in Sickle Cell Disease Research and Training at the University of Abuja, where she is a professor in the Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion at the College of Health Sciences.