Scientific Pandemic Influenza Advisory Committee (SPI)




	DH Home




	You are here: Advisory bodies > Scientific Pandemic Influenza Advisory Committee (SPI) > Members

Subgroups


	Subgroup on modelling
	Subgroup on behaviour and communication

Review of evidence base

SPI contacts

SPI members' biographies

Dr Babatunde Olowokure
Consultant Epidemiologist - Health Protection Agency Regional Surveillance Unit, West Midlands

Dr. Babatunde Olowokure is a consultant epidemiologist with the Health Protection Agency Regional Surveillance Unit (West Midlands) based in Birmingham. He is also Director of the Health Protection Research and Development Unit, University of Birmingham. Dr. Olowokure is also a member of the Faculty of Public Health International Committee.

Dr. Olowokure received a medical degree from the University of Maiduguri, Nigeria and completed his training in public health medicine in the UK. He also received a masters of public health and epidemiology from the University of Birmingham and a PhD from the University of Warwick. He has published widely on communicable disease surveillance and epidemiology, has participated in several important global outbreak investigations including SARS and human avian influenza (H5N1) and been involved in pandemic preparedness activities in the Asia-Pacific region.

Dr. Olowokure was seconded to the World Health Organization (WHO), Department of Communicable Disease Surveillance and Response, Global Alert and Response, Geneva, Switzerland in 2002. He worked with colleagues in the Programme for Chemical Safety (PCS) to set up the global public health Chemical Surveillance, Alert and Response Network (ChemiNet) for chemical incidents of international public health concern. While in Geneva he also helped develop revisions to the International Health Regulations (IHR), was a member of a team sent to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to investigate an outbreak of an unexplained illness and was seconded to the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) Manila, Philippines to provide strategic support for WHO efforts to investigate and control the emerging H5N1. During 2003 he travelled to Taiwan, China to lead a WHO team during the global SARS outbreak. In 2004 he spent three months in Fiji as the head of the WHO, Communicable Disease Surveillance and Response (CDS) team prior to joining the HPA in 2004.

Dr. Olowokure took a 5-month leave of absence in 2006 to join the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office Manila, Philippines as the acting Regional Adviser, CDS. The responsibilities of this unit included regional avian influenza surveillance, working with WHO, public health colleagues and others worldwide to develop recommendations, guidance and capacity building activities related to public health responses to avian influenza and addressing pandemic preparedness issues.

Top