Obianuju Genevieve Aguolu, MBBS, MPH, PhD
Clinical Assistant Professor
Epidemiology
“Successful vaccination programs have significantly reduced the burden of vaccine-preventable diseases. Many of today’s parents and teenagers have no awareness or knowledge of most of these diseases, which leads to the perception that their severity or potential to infect people is low. Because of this, people may not understand the dangers of these diseases re-emerging. Public health advocates are faced with the challenge of communicating the benefits of immunization to this population. My goal is to help improve knowledge, beliefs, healthy lifestyles, as well as identify more effective communication strategies with regards to infectious diseases, especially vaccine-preventable disease.”
Biography
Dr. Genevieve Aguolu is a physician and epidemiologist and a clinical assistant professor in the Division of Epidemiology at the Ohio State University College of Public Health. Before joining Ohio State, she was a visiting assistant professor in the Biology Department at Oberlin College. At Ohio State, she has designed and implemented multiple undergraduate and graduate public health courses.
Her research focuses on infectious diseases, with special interests in vaccine acceptance, graphic medicine, disease modeling and health disparities. She has coordinated projects across U.S. and international institutions and has collaborated on studies of respiratory infections, including influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), group B streptococcus and SARS-CoV-2.
Her doctoral dissertation examined socio-cognitive predictors of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination decision-making among college students. As part of this work, she designed, implemented, and evaluated an educational comic book, "An Important Conversation to Have," to address HPV vaccine knowledge gaps and misconceptions among young adults. The comic won Silver American Advertising Federation (ADDY, Akron) and Hiram College Graphic Medicine awards. This work has also inspired collaborations among the Ohio Department of Health, Ohio Partners for Cancer Control (OPCC) and Kent State University to study the comic’s impact on HPV vaccine education among Ohio high school students. Dr. Aguolu aims to improve disease-related knowledge, beliefs, and healthy behaviors, reduce health disparities and advance health equity.
She has published several peer-reviewed papers and presented her research at numerous national and international venues, including the American Public Health Association (APHA), National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID), American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), the Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM) by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) and Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS). She lives in Ohio with her husband and two sons.
Education
- Postdoctoral Associate
- Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Yale University, 2022
- PhD
- Public Health Epidemiology, Kent State University, 2018
- MPH
- Consortium of Eastern Ohio Master of Public Health/University of Akron, 2012
- Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS)
- Nnamdi Azikiwe University, 2004
Research interests
Infectious diseases with special interests in vaccine acceptance, graphic medicine, infectious disease modeling, maternal and child health, and health disparity.
Memberships
- Model of Infectious Disease Agent Study
- Ohio Partners for Cancer Control
- Ohio Public Health Association
- American Public Health Association
- Society for Epidemiological Research
Select publications
- Allana, R., Yildirim, I., Ariff, S., Belgaumi, S. M., Ahsan, N., Aguolu, O., Umair, S., Ali, S. A., Maqsood, T., Iqbal, M., Malik, F. A., Omer, S. B., & Kazi, A. M. (2025). Determining the cause of death through mortality surveillance using verbal autopsy in Karachi, Pakistan. Journal of Global Health, 15, 04199. https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.15.04199
- Allana, R., Yildirim, I., Ariff, S., Belgaumi, S. M., Ahsan, N., Aguolu, O., Umair, S., Ali, S. A., Maqsood, T., Iqbal, M., Malik, F. A., Omer, S. B., & Kazi, A. M. (2025). Determining the cause of death through mortality surveillance using verbal autopsy in Karachi, Pakistan. Journal of Global Health, 15, 04199. https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.15.04199
- Kabir, F., Allana, R., Yildirim, I., Hotwani, A., Belgaumi, S. M., Aziz, F., Malik, F. A., Jamal, S., Aguolu, O., Ahsan, N., Hasan, Z., Ariff, S., Omer, S. B., & Kazi, A. M. (2025). Evaluating the burden of respiratory tract infections among mortality cases in Karachi, Pakistan: A post-pandemic surveillance analysis. Journal of Global Health, 15, 04198. https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.15.04198
- Kiti, M. C., Sacoor, C., Aguolu, O. G., Zelaya, A., Chen, H., Kim, S. S., Cavele, N., Jamisse, E., Tchavana, C., Jose, A., Macicame, I., Joaquim, O., Ahmed, N., Liu, C. Y., Yildirim, I., Nelson, K., Jenness, S. M., Maldonado, H., Kazi, M., … Lopman, B. (2025). Social Contact Patterns in Rural and Urban Settings, Mozambique, 2021–2022. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 31(1), 94–103. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid3101.240875
- Nelson, K. N., Kiti, M. C., Shiiba, M., Sacoor, C., Bardají, A., Macicame, I., Jamisse, E., Tchavana, C., José, A., Cavele, N., Maldonado, H., Jarquin, C., María Ajsivinac H., Raghava, V., Samuel, P., Srinivasan, R., Kazi, M., Allana, R., Kim, S. S., Prasad, P. V., Chen, D., Liu C, Jenness SM, Ahmed N, Aguolu, O. G., Sundaram MA, Yildirim I, Malik F, Melegaro A, Lopman BA* and Omer SB*. Characterizing social behavior relevant for infectious disease transmission in four low- and middle-income countries, 2021-2023. Nature Communications, 2025. 16:9586.
- Pischel, L., Aguolu, O. G., Ahmed, N., Campbell, M., Borg, R. C., Duckwall, C., Willebrand, K., Paintsil, E. E., Muenker, M. C., Malik, A., Kiti, M. C., Jenness, S., Lopman, B., Belsky, J., Martinello, R. A., Yildirim, I., Ko, A. I., & Omer, S. (2025). P-271. Contact Patterns of United States Health Care Workers at Quaternary Health Center: Stability of contacts during the post-pandemic era. Open Forum Infectious Diseases, 12(Supplement_1), ofae631.475. Published: 29 January 2025https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofae631.475
- Pischel, L., Aguolu, O. G., Ahmed, N., Campbell, M. M., Borg, R., Duckwall, C., Willebrand, K., Zaleski, A., Paintsil, E. E., Muenker, M. C., Malik, A. A., Kiti, M. C., Warren, J. L., Jenness, S. M., Lopman, B. A., Belsky, J., Martinello, R. A., Yildirim, I., Ko, A. I., & Omer, S. B. (2025). Social mixing patterns of United States healthcare personnel at a quaternary health center: A prospective observational study. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 1–9. Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 January 2025. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2024.234
- Kiti, M. C., Sacoor, C., Aguolu, O. G., Zelaya, A., Chen, H., Kim, S. S., Cavele, N., Jamisse, E., Tchavana, C., Jose, A., Macicame, I., Joaquim, O., Ahmed, N., Liu, C. Y., Yildirim, I., Nelson, K., Jenness, S. M., Maldonado, H., Kazi, M., ... Omer, S. B. (2025). Social contact patterns in rural and urban settings, Mozambique, 2021–2022. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 31(1). https://doi.org/10.3201/eid3101.240875
- Aguolu, O. G., Kiti, M. C., Nelson, K., Liu, C. Y., Sundaram, M., Gramacho, S., Jenness, S., Melegaro, A., Sacoor, C., Bardají, A., Macicame, I., Jose, A., Cavele, N., Amosse, F., Uamba, M., Jamisse, E., Tchavana, C., Briones, H. G. M., ... Omer, S. B. (2024). Comprehensive profiling of social mixing patterns in resource-poor countries: A mixed-methods research protocol. PLOS ONE, 19(6), e0301638. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301638
- Kiti, M. C.*, Aguolu, O. G.*, Zelaya, A.**, Chen, H. Y.**, Ahmed, N.**, Batross, J.**, Liu, C. Y.**, Nelson, K. N., Jenness, S. M., Melegaro, A., Ahmed, F., Malik, F., Omer, S. B., & Lopman, B. A. (2023). Changing social contact patterns among US workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: April 2020 to December 2021. Epidemics, 45, 100727. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2023.100727