Dr Chinatu N. Ohiaeri obtained her Medical degree from the University of Benin, Nigeria in 1983. She started her residency training in Paediatrics in 1992 at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, having taking time off start her family. She obtained her Paediatric Fellowship of the National Post Graduate Medical College of Nigeria in1999 and worked briefly at Crest Consultant Clinic, Lagos before practising at the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company of Nigeria in Lagos for a few years.
In 2006, she joined the Federal Medical Centre Keffi, in Nasarawa State, as the pioneer Paediatrician and set up the department which is now accredited and training Residents. She is in her third year as the Deputy Head of Clinical services at the 270-bed tertiary hospital where part of her duties is co-ordinating the centre’s Residency training programme. She is also a key member of the hospital’s Top Management Committee charged with policy and running the hospital in addition to carrying out her clinical, academic and administrative duties. Dr Ohiaeri is a keen researcher, having enhanced her knowledge and skills while completing the intensive MPH programme in 2004, at the University of Lagos, Nigeria.
Dr Ohiaeri has put her public health knowledge and skill to good use since 2004, having worked on various international and national projects under the auspices of FMOH/UNICEF/WHO. These include carrying out Situation Analysis on Maternal and Newborn and Child health as Facilitator for Nasarawa State, Facilitator and Course Director for Integrated Management of Childhood Diseases in Children as well as being part of the team that developed the NSHDP, having co-ordinated and developed the plan for Plateau State as State Consultant over a 6 month period and as part of the overall National Strategic Health Development Plan (NSHDP) team in 2010-2011.
She attends local and international paediatric scientific conferences regularly and has published scientific papers on childhood illnesses including Acute Respiratory Infections in under-fives, Childhood HIV/AIDS, Post-neonatal Tetanus as well as Sickle Cell disease, among others.
In 2011, the Federal Ministry of Health designated Federal Medical Centre Keffi a special centre for the management and control of Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) and equipped it with a High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) Vnbs Machine for Newborn SCD screening. The centre is also the co-ordinating centre for newborn Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) screening in North Central region of Nigeria, with Dr Ohiaeri as the pioneer co-ordinator of the program. She has worked hard with her team in collaboration with partners such as the Sickle Cell Cohort Research /St Guys and Thomas, London and Sickle Cell Support Society of Nigeria to set up a functioning and standardized HPLC screening service for newborns and infants for Sickle Cell Disease to date, in addition to providing a holistic care for children, adults and families affected by Sickle Cell Disease in North Central Nigeria. Dr Ohiaeri is trained genetic counsellor for SCD and has served on various technical committees charged with fashioning out guidelines for the control and Management of Sickle Cell Disease in Nigeria and also a member of the steering committee of the Sickle Cell Support Society of Nigeria- a body which partners with government, professional groups and other stakeholders locally and abroad in advancing the course of Sickle Cell Disease control in Nigeria. She recently attended the international Sickle Cell forum- The 7th SICKLE CELL IN FOCUS CONFERENCE at the King’s College London in 2013, where she updated her knowledge further on the latest on SCD management and control.
Dr Ohiaeri is an experienced Paediatrician, trainer and was made an Examiner in Paediatrics and a board member of the National Post Graduate College of Nigeria (Faculty of Paediatrics) since 2012 till date as well as a member of the Paediatric Association of Nigeria, an affiliate of International Paediatric Association.
