"Three's Company and Severity: COVID-19, Influenza, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus" 

Speaker:

Ikwo Oboho, M.D., Sc.M.
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine
Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine
UT Southwestern Medical Center

About Ikwo Oboho:

Originally from Nigeria, Dr. Oboho holds a bachelor's degree in anthropology and human biology from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She earned her medical degree at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennesee, and completed internal medicine residency training at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She then received advanced training through an infectious diseases fellowship program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, while also completing a master's degree in clinical investigation at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Oboho then transitioned to public health by entering the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) as a medical epidemiologist in the Influenza Division at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.

After completing her EIS fellowship, Dr. Oboho joined the Division of Global HIV and TB at the CDC and worked for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, focusing on increasing access to HIV treatment in sub-Saharan Africa, with emphasis on West and Central Africa, and diagnostics and therapeutics for the management of opportunistic infections among persons living with HIV with Advanced HIV Disease. She also supported various task force activities at the CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic. During her time at CDC, Dr. Oboho supported several outbreak responses, including the Middle East respiratory syndrome virus (MERS-CoV) infection linked to health facilities in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, novel avian influenza A(H5N1) outbreak in Cambodia, Ebola pandemic preparedness in Côte d’Ivoire, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Commander in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, Dr. Oboho has been an active-duty officer since 2013. In 2021, she earned the USPHS Commissioned Corps' Presidential Unit Citation honoring the highest level of performance of duty for protecting, promoting, and advancing the health and safety of the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also received the Hubert H. Humphrey Award for Service to America Award in 2022 for the Office of Refugee Resettlement mission in 2021.

Dr. Oboho’s research interests include the management of HIV and related opportunistic infection risk factors for interruptions in HIV treatment and advanced HIV disease in sub-Saharan Africa, metabolic complications of HIV therapy, infectious diseases outbreak control and response, and the prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections. Her investigations have resulted in 18 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Additionally, she has presented her findings at scientific conferences throughout the United States and internationally and collaborated with the World Health Organization for the 2017 guidelines for managing advanced HIV disease and rapid initiation of antiretroviral therapy.

Dr. Oboho joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2022.