Date: 29th and 30th May 2025
Time 8:00am to 5:00pm each day
Venue: Alisa Hotel, North Ridge, Accra
Theme: Allergy diagnosis and management: Getting the basics right

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS/FACILITATORS

Jonathan O’B Hourihane

Jonathan Hourihane is Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health in Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Children’s Health Ireland Temple St, Dublin, Ireland since 2019, having been Chair and Head of Department in UCC, Cork, Ireland  2005-2019. 
His primary area of clinical and research interest is in paediatric food allergy and anaphylaxis. 

He was a Fulbright-HRB Health Impact Scholar to Children’s Hospital Colorado, USA in 2020. He is a founding Board member and is current President of the Clemens von Pirquet Foundation, and of the Irish Food Allergy Network (www.ifan.ie). He was President of the Irish Association of Allergy and Immunology 2017-2022.  He is PI of the INFANT Centre in UCC. 

He led the globally unique CORAL study about the effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on children’s health including allergy and neurodevelopmental outcoems and their gut health, especially their microbiome. In 2025 he will be launching a follow up study called FLORAL- funded by Science Foundation Ireland – aiming to study, in a similar way to CORAL, 1000 new babies born 2 years after the pandemic was declared over.

Philippe Eigenmann

Philippe Eigenmann is a pediatrician and allergist trained in Switzerland and in the USA (Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore). He is currently head of Pediatric Allergy at the University Hospitals of Geneva Switzerland. His main focus of research is food allergy with several ongoing studies focusing on early-life events of allergy, as well as on food allergy diagnosis.

He has published over 200 articles in international scientific journals. Since January 2018, he is editor-in-Chief of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, the world leading journal in the field, and in the Editorial Board of Allergy. In addition to his scientific activity, he has been the chair of the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) section on Pediatrics from and president of the Swiss Society for Allergy and Immunology. He is also secretary of the EAACI-Clemens von Pirquet Foundation, a European foundation promoting research and education in pediatric allergy and immunology.

Mike Levin

Prof Mike Levin is head of the Division of Asthma and Allergy in the Department of Paediatrics, University of Cape Town. 

Prof Levin has a special interest in epidemiology of allergy in Africa, severe allergies and anaphylaxis, as well as patient support and education.  Current research includes rural and urban differences in prevalence of food allergy and mechanisms of meat-induced anaphylaxis. 

He has participated in reviews of local, national and international guidelines for societies and for government departments.  He has published >150 peer reviewed scientific articles, 5 chapters in medical books and edited a textbook of paediatrics and the Allergy Society of South Africa’s textbook of allergy, available free of charge to doctors situated in Africa at www.allsa.com.  He serves on the executive committee of the Allergy Society of South Africa and is the CEO of the Allergy Foundation of South Africa (www.allergyfoundation.co.za) where you can find huge amount of information for doctors and patients.

Olatunde Odusote

Olatunde Odusote is a Consultant Pediatrician, Allergologist and Dermatologist. He is the founder and Clinical team lead of Allergy and Asthma Clinics, Lagos, Nigeria. He was formerly the Head Unit of Allergy, Dermatology and Pulmonary Medicine, Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos. Olatunde is a Fellow of the Faculty of Pediatrics, National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria and holds a Diploma of the College of Family Medicine in Allergology. He is also a Fellow of the College of Pediatrics in Allergology, Colleges of Medicine of South Africa.

Olatunde is the Chairperson, Allergy and Clinical Immunology Society (Nigeria) and a member of other various professional and academic societies including the Allergy Society of South Africa, the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

He is passionate about advancing optimal and affordable allergy care in sub-Sahara Africa and has published in reputable national and international journals.

Hilary Dzigbodi Andoh

Dr Hilary Dzigbodi Andoh is a Paediatric Allergologist, Head of the Paediatric Allergy Clinic at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, Ghana, and a Member of the Ghana College of Physicians. She is the 2023 Eugene Weinberg Medal Award Winner for the best candidate in the Diploma in Allergology [Colleges of Medicine South Africa (CMSA)]. Further, after completing subspecialty qualification in Paediatric Allergology (CMSA), she became the first Paediatric Allergologist in Ghana. She has co-authored two publications. 

Dr. Andoh has been a speaker at various conferences and forums, including Allergy Foundation of South Africa (AFSA) masterclasses, Allergy in Africa webinars, and the World Allergy Training School, with a case report presented at the Allergy Society of South Africa congress 2023. 

She is a part-time lecturer with the Family Health Medical School and the Accra College of Medicine.

She is also the Founding and Current President of the Allergy Society of Ghana (ASG).  Visit our website www.allergysocietygh.org 

Under her astute leadership, the ASG was able to attain Associate Member Society status of the World Allergy Organisation in September 2024, barely 15 months after ASG’s inception.  She is a member of the World Allergy Organisation (WAO), Allergy Society of South Africa (ALLSA), European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), American Association of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI).

She is passionate about educating health professionals on allergy and building collaborations to advance allergy diagnosis, management, advocacy, and research. Seeing improvement in the quality of life of her patients brings her great joy.  

Kafui Searyoh

Dr. Searyoh is a Consultant ENT Surgeon, Rhinologist and Endoscopic Sinus Surgeon with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and a Senior Lecturer, Department of Surgery , University of Ghana Medical School, Legon, Accra. He is a Fellow of the Ghana College of Surgeons (FGCS-ORL) and, a Fellow of the West African College of Surgeons (FWACS). He has had Rhinology observership fellowships in Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer; and Professorial Unit, University College of London under Prof Valerie Lund. He had Rhinology and Endoscopic Sinus including Transorbital Endoscopic Surgery Fellowship at the University of Cape Town, South Africa under Prof Darlene Lubbe. Dr. Searyoh is involved in the Rhinology training of residents under the Ghana College of Surgeons, and General ENT training for residents and medical students. He is also a part-time lecturer at the Peri-operative Nursing School, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. He has a keen interest in research and clinical publications. He has 15 clinical publications with one book chapter.

Research Interests include:

1 Acute and chronic rhinosinusitis, fungal rhinosinusitis, Allergic Rhinitis 

2. Endoscopic sinus surgery, transorbital surgery, and endoscopic skull base surgery
3. Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
4. Paediatric airway pathologies and intervention

Sandra Kwarteng Owusu

Dr. Sandra Kwarteng Owusu is a Senior Lecturer, a Consultant Paediatrician and Paediatric Pulmonologist at the Department of Child Health, School of Medical Sciences- Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi-Ghana. Sandra is an Executive Member of the Pan-African Thoracic Society and Vice President of the Ghana Thoracic Society. Sandra is also a PATS- MECOR Alumni and is currently enrolled in the Women’s Leadership Program sponsored by PATS and ATS. She is a member of the European Respiratory and the American Thoracic Societies. 

Sandra, established the first pediatric pulmonology service in Ghana at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Kumasi, in 2019, and currently heads the pediatric pulmonology unit at KATH. She has also established a paediatric respiratory disease research group that supports the running of the unit with updated data on the trends in the presentation of respiratory diseases at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital. She has been involved in mentoring and capacity-building for several health professionals in Ghana.

Sandra plays an advisory role for with the National Tuberculosis Programme in Ghana and contributed to developing a national paediatric tuberculosis guideline. She also worked closely with the programme in training healthcare teams to improve childhood tuberculosis diagnosis. She is a strong advocate of lung health and has contributed to the development of the Ghana Thoracic Society’s National Asthma Guidelines for Ghana in 2023. 

She has participated in international and multi-center research projects. She was the Ghana site lead investigator for the Chronic Respiratory Disease Observatory for Africa study (CHEST AFRICA), conducted in eight African countries led by the Pan African Thoracic Society.  She also participated as a Co-investigator in the Achieving Control of Asthma in African Children (ACACIA) and the follow-up study on Children’s Air Pollution Profiles in Africa (CAPPA), NHIR UK-funded research 

Sandra is a recipient of the Robert Austrian Research Award, 2020 by the International Society for Pneumonia and Pneumonia and Pneumococcal Disease (ISPPD-12). She has established a Network for Severe Pneumonia in Childhood Research in Ghana– this group is looking at the trends in childhood pneumonia admissions in six centres in Ghana. Her research interests are in improving lung health outcomes in children with pneumonia asthma, tuberculosis and sickle cell disease.

Grace Naa Agowa Amoo-Quaye

Dr Grace Amoo-Quaye is a Senior Specialist in Otolaryngology in the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital. 

She is a Part-Time Lecturer in Otolaryngology for the Undergraduate Students of the School of Medical Sciences, University of Cape Coast as well as the postgraduate Section of the School for Nursing and Midwifery, also of the University of Cape Coast.

She was an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Otolaryngologists for the 2023/2024 period.

She has co-authored three peer-reviewed articles which have been published. She has presented to the academic community on a few occasions.  She is married with children.

Mark-Young Seadey

Dr. Mark-Young Seadey is a Senior physician specialist and consultant Dermatologist at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. He is also a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana Medical School, College of Health Sciences. 

He has co-authored two case reports: 

Erythema Elevatum Diutinum: A case report of presentation and management.

Parry Romberg Syndrome in Young Ghanaian: A case report and a literature review.