Improving Access to Vaccines in Children - Dr. Oghenebrume Wariri

Dr. Oghenebrume Wariri is a Clinical Research Fellow in Vaccines and Immunity at the MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM. His research focuses on vaccine epidemiology, particularly examining the performance of country-level immunization systems and investigating how broader demand- and supply-side factors influence the delivery and uptake of routine childhood vaccination in West Africa. Dr. Wariri received his Medical Degree (MBBS) from the University of Benin (Nigeria) and specialized as a Paediatrician after completing a six-year residency training program, earning a Fellowship of the West African College of Physicians. He obtained his MSc in Global Health as a fully-funded Chevening scholar from the University of Aberdeen, UK and has previously held a Wellcome Trust Global Health Clinical Research Training Fellowship at Imperial College London. His PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) investigates the burden, spatial pattern, and drivers of untimely routine childhood vaccination in The Gambia. Dr. Wariri sits on the five-member WHO National Verification Committee (NVC) for Measles and Rubella in The Gambia and is also a member of the Management Committee of the Vaccine Centre at LSHTM. He was the Principal Investigator of the recently concluded EDCTP-funded TIMELY study, which investigated the spatial pattern of untimely routine childhood vaccination in The Gambia and the 2023 African Visiting Fellow to the Office of Population Research (OPR) at Princeton University. In July 2023, Dr. Wariri was awarded the five-year Fogarty Emerging Global Leader award (K43) from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to map zero-dose prevalence, delayed measles vaccination, and the risk of measles outbreaks in The Gambia.

In this episode, we delve into his career journey, highlighting his contributions toward improving access to vaccines in children. Alongside providing updates on his recent award, Dr. Wariri also had a lot of nuggets to share with African scientists on collaborations and research translation. Connect with him/learn more about his work via ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠X⁠, ⁠LSHTM⁠, and ⁠ResearchGate⁠.

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00:00 - intro 02:57 - overview of academic and research journey 07:33 - how interest in vaccine epidemiology developed 12:17 - highlights, findings, and implications of research projects 16:17 - comments on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected vaccination rates 20:46- factors influencing low/high vaccination rates/coverage in various countries 26:16 - on winning the Fogarty Emerging Global Leader Award 33:52 - fostering intra-continental research among African scientists 41:51 - comments on translation of research findings in Africa 46:43 - final words 50:00 - outro