Ifedayo Adetifa

I am a paediatrician and infectious diseases epidemiologist and the overarching aim of my research is to provide evidence for vaccine policy in low and middle-income countries especially those in Africa. I am based full-time at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kilifi, Kenya where I hold a position of Clinical Epidemiologist in the Epidemiology and Demography Department. I am also an Associate Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

My research interest includes evaluations of vaccine effectiveness and I currently work on pneumococcal conjugate vaccine impact studies in Kenya and Nigeria, and rotavirus vaccine impact studies in Kenya. I am specifically interested in the scientific basis for managing pneumococcal conjugate vaccine programmes in Africa with only pneumococcal carriage data, and in vaccine seroepidemiology including the scientific basis for methods of estimating vaccination coverage and population immunity.

My other interests which are closely linked to earlier training and work at the United Kingdom’s Medical Research Council Gambia Unit include Tuberculosis epidemiology and evidence synthesis including systematic reviews.

I am a member of the Kenyan National Immunisation Coordination Committee (K-NICC) and of WHO Africa’s Regional Immunisation Technical Advisory Group (RITAG). I am the incoming chairman of the Centre Scientific Committee at the KEMRI Centre for Geographic Medicine Research-Coast.