Dr. Gambo Gumel Aliyu is an Epidemiologist and a Public Health specialist, he was the Chief of Party for the Nigeria Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS) until his appointment as the DG, National Agency for the Control of AIDS in 2019.
He attended Ahmadu Bello University of Zaria, Nigeria, where he obtained Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) in 1995, later proceeded to University of Maryland, to obtain PhD in Epidemiology in 2012.Many of his colleagues in the Epidemiology field describe him as one Medical practitioner from a special breed.
Perhaps because one can’t succinctly categorize what it is about him that endeared him to the field, where he has been touching many lives.
Dr. Aliyu boasts of a very rich profile. He is from Jigawa State, but he studied Medicine at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, and graduated in 1995 with MBBS Hons. He had a Masters in Clinical Research from the University of Maryland in 2008.
Mr Aliyu obtained a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Maryland in 2012. He also worked as the Country Director for University of Maryland programmes in Nigeria. He is an associate professor in the Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine.
He has so many research works with his name on them. Some of these include HIV Epidemiology, HIV-TB Epidemiology, Multi-drug resistant TB, HIV Surveillance, Malaria Surveillance, Prevention of HIV transmission in Key Population, ART Programme Evaluation, Evaluation of Vaccine Safety and C, and HIV research ethics.
Also noteworthy are his unilateral ways- of approaching the issue of HIV/AIDS in the country. When COVID-19 struck Nigeria in 2020, the country went into lockdown. As the virus overwhelmed systems for health, many clinical facilities were swiftly turned into COVID-19 isolation centers, displacing the delivery of other lifesaving health services, including those for HIV, TB and malaria. But some important lessons were learned and now, the country is seeing better results than ever.
Dr. Gambo Aliyu, the Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), was a Principal Recipient of the Global Fund that coordinates the activities and programs to fight HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. He strongly believes that without the HIV infrastructure first in place, Nigeria would not have handled COVID-19 better.
Through the prior efforts of his office in handling a similar case, COVID-19 was an easy run for the country. The sample transfer system on the ground, the supply chain system, the 27 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) laboratories that the country had for HIV, the human resources at the facility level to provide health services, as well as around 25,000 community volunteers and community workers that were trained and were providing services for HIV – all these were deployed to support the COVID-19 response, and Nigeria hit the ground running. All these were easy achievements because this gentleman and his team were prepared.
In the 27 laboratories, NACA created a shift mechanism: during the day, it ran HIV samples, and overnight, NACA ran COVID-19 samples. NACA, under Dr. Gambo Gumel Aliyu’s leadership also created a parallel sample transfer system for COVID-19, as a replica of what was existing for HIV. So, this is how HIV infrastructure has helped manage COVID-19.
The fallout of Covid-19 in the country meant that NACA had to run an integrated service on HIV. Integrating health services means that when community health workers are out looking for cases of COVID-19, they are also looking for cases of HIV and TB.Community health workers went door-to-door, offering COVID-19, HIV and TB services, informing people about the diseases and referring to likely cases to get tested. If someone had a cough for instance, they would be referred to test for COVID-19 and TB.
Dr. Aliyu’s community health workers and volunteers were also telling people the importance of knowing their HIV status and the likelihood of having a more serious impact from COVID-19 – if you get COVID-19 and you have HIV, it could be devastating. So that really helped, and people responded and developed an interest in knowing their HIV status. This integrated approach has proven to be a phenomenal success.
Dr. Gambo’s Agency enjoyed international support. With support from the Global Fund’s COVID-19 Response Mechanism (C19RM), Nigeria’s systems for health got strengthened and are now better prepared to respond to outbreaks. The laboratory system has expanded from 27 laboratories that can run polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to almost 100 nationwide, including at least one in each state. The sample transfer and storage system is now coordinated across the whole country, and the number of trained laboratory technicians has quadrupled, which is a critical asset, not only for COVID-19 but also for other diseases.
Dr. Gambo is loved by staff members of NACA. This is so because he is determined to protect the interest of the staff as well as enhance their welfare.
He has been on the forefront, working with all and sundry to champion the cause of ending the spread of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.
Olamide Adeniji is a member of the editorial team of TheScript Newspapers
