Nigeria - Jos (EN)

Jos, the capital of Plateau state is located in the North- Central region of Nigeria, West Africa. The city is located almost 4,000 feet above sea level with an area of 8,600 square kilometers and has a population of about one Million inhabitants.

The Jos University Teaching Hospital is the first of four tertiary hospitals in the city established in 1975, and is the main referral center in North- Central Nigeria. In collaboration with the University of Jos, the Medical school was established in 1976. The teaching hospital also trains Resident doctors for the West African and National Colleges. The hospital has 17 clinical departments and 13 non- clinical departments with a bed space capacity for about 200 inpatients.

The mission of the hospital is “To provide effective and efficient health services, training and research that meets the needs of the people”. The University also encourages and promotes a culture of excellence and builds innovation, and encourages staff to progress academically.

This enabled Olukemi Omowumi Ige to obtain permission to pursue a long-distance PhD program in public health/epidemiology at the Ludwig- Maximillian University under the supervision of Prof Nikolaus Haas and Prof. Urlich Mansmann. Trained as a general Paediatrician/ Paediatric Cardiologist in Nigeria, her PhD thesis is tilted “Cardiac Abnormalities in HIV exposed neonates in Jos, Nigeria”. Neonates of HIV Positive Neonates are screened using echocardiography as soon as possible after delivery to determine the presence of structural and functional cardiac abnormalities and determine the association of these abnormalities to the use of dolutegravir in the first trimester. It is a multicenter based study with about 1-5 neonates recruited daily from several facilities across the city of Jos and its environs.