Iruka N Okeke
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 636962 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Iruka N Okeke |
| NOMBRES | Iruka N |
| APELLIDO | Okeke |
| FIRMA | OKEKE I N |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Ibadan |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1694-7587 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 15 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 13 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 15 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2011 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 2 |
SeqAfrica
The ongoing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) demands capacity strengthening in Africa for improved pathogen surveillance. The high-resolution picture of AMR provided by pathogen whole genome sequencing (WGS) can help close data gaps and inform disease prevention strategies, interventions and public health actions. Here, we report on phase 1 of the Fleming Fund-supported SeqAfrica project (2019–2023), one of the first genomic AMR surveilla…
Factors associated with positive blood cultures in children in nine African and Asian countries
BACKGROUND: Blood culture (BC) in children has relatively low diagnostic yield and high contamination rates, limiting cost-effectiveness. We aimed to determine readily available baseline characteristics to identify hospitalised children with a likelihood of higher diagnostic yield in low- and middle-income countries. METHODS: We used data from ACORN2, a prospective clinical surveillance network including 19 hospitals across Africa and Asia. We in…
Beyond high cost
Monitoring antimicrobial resistance trends from global genomics data
Whole genome sequencing (WGS) is increasingly supporting routine pathogen surveillance at local and national levels, providing comparable data that can inform on the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) globally. However, the potential for shared WGS data to guide interventions around AMR remains under-exploited, in part due to challenges in collating and transforming the growing volumes of data into timely insights. We present …
Slow-growing Salmonella enterica serovariety Typhi mis-identified as serovariety Gallinarum in Ibadan, Nigeria
Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhi is endemic in Nigeria where serovar Gallinarum is rarely reported. Following routine blood culture and identification, three patients with probable S. Gallinarum infections were reported in Ibadan within 10-days, precipitating an outbreak investigation. All three isolates were re-identified using VITEK2, motility-tested using Sulphide-Indole-Motility (SIM) medium and whole genome sequenced (WGS) o…
Barriers and facilitators to digital technology application for antimicrobial resistance surveillance
The systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) data are imperative to quantify the AMR burden, monitor and identify emerging AMR, and inform global, international, and national health strategies and guidelines. Despite ongoing global efforts to improve surveillance capacities across Nigeria and other African countries, laboratory information management systems (LIMS) that could improve data quality, and …
PCR diagnostics are insufficient for the detection of Diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli in Ibadan, Nigeria
Understanding the contribution of different diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli pathotypes to disease burden is critical to mapping risk and informing vaccine development. Targeting select virulence genes by PCR is the diagnostic approach of choice in high-burden, least-resourced African settings. We compared the performance of a commonly-used multiplex protocol to whole genome sequencing (WGS). PCR was applied to 3,815 E . coli isolates from 120 chi…
Evaluation of fecal occult blood testing for rapid diagnosis of invasive diarrhea in young children
Antimicrobials are only indicated in acute childhood diarrhea if it is invasive or persistent. Rapid screening for invasive diarrhea can therefore inform treatment decisions but pathogen identification by culture is slow, expensive and cumbersome. This study aimed to assess the diagnostic utility of stool microscopy and immunochromatographic fecal occult blood test (FOBT) kits for identifying invasive or potentially invasive diarrhea in Ibadan, N…
The Lancet Nigeria Commission
Health is central to the development of any country. Nigeria’s gross domestic product is the largest in Africa, but its per capita income of about ₦770 000 (US$2000) is low with a highly inequitable distribution of income, wealth, and therefore, health. It is a picture of poverty amidst plenty. Nigeria is both a wealthy country and a very poor one. About 40% of Nigerians live in poverty, in social conditions that create ill health, and with the e…
Leapfrogging laboratories
The scope and trajectory of today’s escalating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis is inadequately captured by existing surveillance systems, particularly those of lower income settings. AMR surveillance systems typically collate data from routine culture and susceptibility testing performed in diagnostic bacteriology laboratories to support healthcare. Limited access to high quality culture and susceptibility testing results in the dearth of A…
Dreams and dream spaces of West African molecular microbiology
By the end of the 1990s, molecular approaches predominated in biomedical science, but, for West African scientists, biology could not have 'gone molecular' at a worse time. Resource constraints led to knowledge expiry and many discovery dreams were terminated, exported or at least postponed. Pivotal transitions in methodologies, knowledge and resources temporally overlapped with an emergent imperative to address infectious disease in Africa. This…
Partnerships for now
Scientific alliances are typically referred to as 'collaborations' but in recent times, those with global health or other development goals are increasingly referred to as 'partnerships'. I observe that one of the features common to this type of partnership is temporality: flagship programs are frequently initiated but less commonly sustained. Thus the pressure that short-term transnational projects place on African health and educational systems…
African biomedical scientists and the promises of “big science”
An ongoing genomic revolution in biology has exponentially increased the rate, possibilities, scope and cost of biological research. Infectious disease genomics are often justified by the potential they have to ameliorate Africa’s disease burden. The molecular biology revolution that preceded genomic science widened the gap between the skill sets of many African biologists and their contemporaries elsewhere. Gap closure through genomics and the a…
Non-prescription antimicrobial use worldwide
Biomedical loopholes, distrusted state, and the politics of HIV/Aids 'cure' in Nigeria
As socio-medical phenomena, epidemics are revealing of the cultures in which they are experienced. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa exposes antecedent tensions between state and society, and, on a broader canvas, between the global north and south. As a contribution to the emerging literature on the social ramifications of HIV/AIDS, this article examines the saga of the Nigerian physician and immunologist, Dr Jeremiah Abalaka, who like other innov…
Biomedical loopholes, distrusted state, and the politics of HIV/Aids 'cure' in Nigeria
As socio-medical phenomena, epidemics are revealing of the cultures in which they are experienced. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa exposes antecedent tensions between state and society, and, on a broader canvas, between the global north and south. As a contribution to the emerging literature on the social ramifications of HIV/AIDS, this article examines the saga of the Nigerian physician and immunologist, Dr Jeremiah Abalaka, who like other innov…
Dreams and dream spaces of West African molecular microbiology
By the end of the 1990s, molecular approaches predominated in biomedical science, but, for West African scientists, biology could not have 'gone molecular' at a worse time. Resource constraints led to knowledge expiry and many discovery dreams were terminated, exported or at least postponed. Pivotal transitions in methodologies, knowledge and resources temporally overlapped with an emergent imperative to address infectious disease in Africa. This…
Partnerships for now
Scientific alliances are typically referred to as 'collaborations' but in recent times, those with global health or other development goals are increasingly referred to as 'partnerships'. I observe that one of the features common to this type of partnership is temporality: flagship programs are frequently initiated but less commonly sustained. Thus the pressure that short-term transnational projects place on African health and educational systems…
Non-prescription antimicrobial use worldwide
Biomedical loopholes, distrusted state, and the politics of HIV/Aids 'cure' in Nigeria
As socio-medical phenomena, epidemics are revealing of the cultures in which they are experienced. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa exposes antecedent tensions between state and society, and, on a broader canvas, between the global north and south. As a contribution to the emerging literature on the social ramifications of HIV/AIDS, this article examines the saga of the Nigerian physician and immunologist, Dr Jeremiah Abalaka, who like other innov…
African biomedical scientists and the promises of “big science”
An ongoing genomic revolution in biology has exponentially increased the rate, possibilities, scope and cost of biological research. Infectious disease genomics are often justified by the potential they have to ameliorate Africa’s disease burden. The molecular biology revolution that preceded genomic science widened the gap between the skill sets of many African biologists and their contemporaries elsewhere. Gap closure through genomics and the a…
Partnerships for now
Scientific alliances are typically referred to as 'collaborations' but in recent times, those with global health or other development goals are increasingly referred to as 'partnerships'. I observe that one of the features common to this type of partnership is temporality: flagship programs are frequently initiated but less commonly sustained. Thus the pressure that short-term transnational projects place on African health and educational systems…
Leapfrogging laboratories
The scope and trajectory of today’s escalating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis is inadequately captured by existing surveillance systems, particularly those of lower income settings. AMR surveillance systems typically collate data from routine culture and susceptibility testing performed in diagnostic bacteriology laboratories to support healthcare. Limited access to high quality culture and susceptibility testing results in the dearth of A…
Dreams and dream spaces of West African molecular microbiology
By the end of the 1990s, molecular approaches predominated in biomedical science, but, for West African scientists, biology could not have 'gone molecular' at a worse time. Resource constraints led to knowledge expiry and many discovery dreams were terminated, exported or at least postponed. Pivotal transitions in methodologies, knowledge and resources temporally overlapped with an emergent imperative to address infectious disease in Africa. This…
The Lancet Nigeria Commission
Health is central to the development of any country. Nigeria’s gross domestic product is the largest in Africa, but its per capita income of about ₦770 000 (US$2000) is low with a highly inequitable distribution of income, wealth, and therefore, health. It is a picture of poverty amidst plenty. Nigeria is both a wealthy country and a very poor one. About 40% of Nigerians live in poverty, in social conditions that create ill health, and with the e…
PCR diagnostics are insufficient for the detection of Diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli in Ibadan, Nigeria
Understanding the contribution of different diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli pathotypes to disease burden is critical to mapping risk and informing vaccine development. Targeting select virulence genes by PCR is the diagnostic approach of choice in high-burden, least-resourced African settings. We compared the performance of a commonly-used multiplex protocol to whole genome sequencing (WGS). PCR was applied to 3,815 E . coli isolates from 120 chi…
Evaluation of fecal occult blood testing for rapid diagnosis of invasive diarrhea in young children
Antimicrobials are only indicated in acute childhood diarrhea if it is invasive or persistent. Rapid screening for invasive diarrhea can therefore inform treatment decisions but pathogen identification by culture is slow, expensive and cumbersome. This study aimed to assess the diagnostic utility of stool microscopy and immunochromatographic fecal occult blood test (FOBT) kits for identifying invasive or potentially invasive diarrhea in Ibadan, N…
SeqAfrica
The ongoing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) demands capacity strengthening in Africa for improved pathogen surveillance. The high-resolution picture of AMR provided by pathogen whole genome sequencing (WGS) can help close data gaps and inform disease prevention strategies, interventions and public health actions. Here, we report on phase 1 of the Fleming Fund-supported SeqAfrica project (2019–2023), one of the first genomic AMR surveilla…
Factors associated with positive blood cultures in children in nine African and Asian countries
BACKGROUND: Blood culture (BC) in children has relatively low diagnostic yield and high contamination rates, limiting cost-effectiveness. We aimed to determine readily available baseline characteristics to identify hospitalised children with a likelihood of higher diagnostic yield in low- and middle-income countries. METHODS: We used data from ACORN2, a prospective clinical surveillance network including 19 hospitals across Africa and Asia. We in…
Beyond high cost
Monitoring antimicrobial resistance trends from global genomics data
Whole genome sequencing (WGS) is increasingly supporting routine pathogen surveillance at local and national levels, providing comparable data that can inform on the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) globally. However, the potential for shared WGS data to guide interventions around AMR remains under-exploited, in part due to challenges in collating and transforming the growing volumes of data into timely insights. We present …
Slow-growing Salmonella enterica serovariety Typhi mis-identified as serovariety Gallinarum in Ibadan, Nigeria
Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhi is endemic in Nigeria where serovar Gallinarum is rarely reported. Following routine blood culture and identification, three patients with probable S. Gallinarum infections were reported in Ibadan within 10-days, precipitating an outbreak investigation. All three isolates were re-identified using VITEK2, motility-tested using Sulphide-Indole-Motility (SIM) medium and whole genome sequenced (WGS) o…
Barriers and facilitators to digital technology application for antimicrobial resistance surveillance
The systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) data are imperative to quantify the AMR burden, monitor and identify emerging AMR, and inform global, international, and national health strategies and guidelines. Despite ongoing global efforts to improve surveillance capacities across Nigeria and other African countries, laboratory information management systems (LIMS) that could improve data quality, and …
Biology (6 obras) · Medicine (6 obras) · Antibiotic Use and Resistance (5 obras) · Business (5 obras) · Computer Science (5 obras) · Economic growth (4 obras) · Political science (4 obras) · Public health (4 obras) · Antibiotic resistance (3 obras) · Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria (3 obras)