Prof. Folasade Tolulope Ogunsola
MBChB, MSc. PhD, FMCPath, FRCPath FWACP, FAS, FNAMed
Folasade Ogunsola is a Professor of Medical Microbiology with a medical degree (MBChB) from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in 1982. In 1990 obtained an MSc with distinction in Medical Microbiology from the College of Medicine, University of Lagos and later in 1998, a PhD in Medical Microbiology from the University of Wales, College of Medicine, Cardiff. She is a Fellow of the Nigerian Postgraduate Medical College (FMCPath) West African College of Physicians (FWACP) and Royal College of Physicians UK (FRCPath). She is a Fellow of the Academies of Science and Medicine.
As a Clinical Microbiologist, her research interest has been centered mainly around the diagnosis and prevention of infectious diseases, infection control as well as antibiotic resistance. Her interest in infection prevention led in the early 2000s to her work in HIV prevention. She was responsible for community-based efforts for the prevention of HIV, tuberculosis, and sexually transmitted infections in Lagos slums between 2003 and 2006. Between 2004-2007, she was the site PI for the multi-center randomized double-blind placebo controlled clinical trial of 6% cellulose sulphate (a microbicide) and HIV and was responsible for critical aspects of its design as well as its implementation in Lagos. She was the Infection Control Lead for the Ebola Outbreak in Nigeria in 2014 and in 2020 served on the Lagos State Governors Think Tank for COVID-19. She presently serves on the Africa CDC Technical working Groups on training and Guideline development for COVID 19 and is a consultant to The NCDC on Infection control.
She is interested in the applications of infection control principles to the prevention of disease transmission in under-resourced communities and over the last 20 years, contributed significantly to raising awareness of IPC in Nigeria and improving its practice. She was the Chair of the Infection Control Committee and the Antibiotic Policy Committee of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital for several years during which hand hygiene program and local production of Alcohol hand rub in the hospital using the WHO formula were introduced, the CSSD reorganized. In 1998, the Nigerian Society for Infection Control was founded to raise awareness of IPC as a science and advocate for its integration into healthcare delivery. More recently with her team has developed the first competency based curriculum for training IPC practitioners in Nigeria.
She currently chairs the Federal Government committee to review the IPC policy for Nigeria and is a member of the Expert Review Committee for Polio. She has served on committees of the WHO and presently is the Chair of the Guideline development Group for Ebola, member of the Technical Advisory Group for Hand hygiene and Global Infection Prevention and Control Network. She is also the Chair of the Infection Control Africa Network (ICAN) a multinational NGO with headquarters in South Africa. She brings to the table her over 25 years’ experience as a lecturer, researcher and clinical microbiologist involved daily with the diagnosis and prevention of infectious diseases in the hospital and community. She has published over 145 papers in peer reviewed journals in Nationally and Internationally..