Alash'le Abimiku

Alash'le Grace Abimiku is a Nigerian executive director of the International Research Centre of Excellence at the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria and a Professor of Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Quotes

• If 90 per cent of us are doing the right thing and 10 per cent are not doing it, we won’t get rid of COVID-19. The rise in the number of COVID-19 cases is expected since we are dealing more with community transmission.
  • [1] Prof Abimiku speak on Covid-19 cases in 2020.
• Also, physiologically as we grow our immune system also becomes weaker and more vulnerable to infection. Anytime a virus infects the body, it senses something foreign and starts to fight it.
  • [2] Prof Abimiku in an exclusive interview with the Guardian in 2020.
• If you look at the existence of the IHVN, it is based on obtaining funds and getting grants to do the work, but it does not exonerate the government from investing in research.
  • [3] Prof Abimiku speak on IHVN in 2020.
• At the moment, we can see it is spreading in Africa, we can see the numbers. We are hoping that we have all the appropriate measures in place to limit the spread.
  • [4] Prof Abimiku speak on Spread of Covid-19 in Africa in 2020.
• Historically, when a bacterium, in this case, mycobacterium tuberculosis, is exposed for a period of time to drugs, it will develop a mechanism to continue to exist despite the drugs, hence, you see the resistance.
  • [5] Prof Abimiku speak on resistance of drugs in tuberculosis treatment in 2020.
• WHO brings the entire expert together, it is always good to listen to them.
  • [6] Prof Abimiku speak about WHO and their roles in 2020.
• Lagos had a prior history of containing the Ebola outbreak, so the country’s epidemiology and emergency response team was really strong and intervened very fast by closing down borders and putting shutdowns in place across several states.
  • [7] Prof Abimiku speak on Covid-19 cases at Lagos in 2020.
• We do not have as many laboratories we would want to, however, the institute has supported laboratories in Nigeria to get certification urged the country to step its game in quality assurance as regards to laboratory science.
  • [8] Prof Abimiku speak on Laboratories Institute in 2020.
• I am honored to be selected to join the Committee, as CEPI is a unique organization with a successful track record of brokering collaborations between researchers, industry, governments, health ministries, and communities to determine what emerging diseases need vaccines, and then supporting the development, manufacturing and distributing of these vaccines to communities globally.
  • [9] Dr Abimiku joins Scientific Advisory Committee in 2021.
• It has been scientifically proven that if you get yourself vaccinated, it will reduce the amount of virus you have that you can transmit to other people. You also become better protected against the circulating virus. A lot of the vaccines and boosters are effective against variants that come up.it has to do with our government and policy. It is important not to disrupt travel and flights, but it is reasonable to require a negative test from individuals who are flying into the country from regions that have a high prevalence of the variant. If we do these three things, we are likely to stay above the difficulties and public health challenges caused by new variants.

[10]Dr Abimiki talks on how Nigeria can maintain resilience against new COVID-19 variants.

• There are several things that we can learn from all the experiences that we have had during the COVID-19 pandemic. We learned things like keeping social distancing, washing hands, and wearing masks. Even during the harmattan, I told people to wear masks. It is not just about COVID-19, they help against other infections too. I still do them when I fly on airlines and in crowded spaces. So we need to maintain these public health practices in Nigeria.

[11]Dr Abimiki talks on how Nigeria can maintain resilience against new COVID-19 variants.