Senegal: Aminata Sall Diallo, a career dedicated to the fight against hepatitis in Africa

Aminata Sall Diallo is a professor of physiology at the Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry of Cheikh Anta Diop University. She has devoted herself for years to the fight against hepatitis in Senegal. For the past few years, she has been a special advisor to the Senegalese Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation.

Born into a family of intellectuals, including eminent philosophers, economists and financiers, Aminata Sall Diallo decided against all odds to deviate from the family tradition of literature and social sciences to take the path of science.

In 1977, she enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry at Cheikh Anta Diop University. Inspired by her professor of physiology at the university, whom she appreciated, particularly for her ability to make students understand the functioning of the human organism, she also decided to specialise in physiology.

After obtaining her medical degree, she passed several certifications in bacteriology, virology, immunology, biomedical chemistry… In 1992, she started her PhD at the University of Paris Diderot in France. She specialised in cell biology, with a focus on liver physiology. She studied, in particular, liver and biliary tract diseases and focused on hepatitis B, a disease that greatly affects African populations.

Returning to Senegal after obtaining her PhD, she joined the Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry at Cheikh Anta Diop University as teacher. In 1998, she set up the National Hepatitis Program and the hepatitis research laboratory, which began work in 1999.

Contributing to the prevention of hepatitis B

She has devoted her career particularly to hepatitis B, a very dreaded variant of hepatitis, responsible for 80% of liver cancer cases, one of the most common cancers in Africa. It is transmitted by objects contaminated with infected blood, by sexual contact…

One of her greatest contributions to the fight against hepatitis B has been prevention. Together with her research laboratory and other scientists, she challenged the WHO’s recommendation to vaccinate infants against hepatitis B after 6 weeks, using a combined hepatitis vaccine that targets more than one virus. A real challenge. Thanks to the results of her laboratory’s studies, the WHO introduced a new vaccination schedule in Africa in 2004. From now on, the hepatitis B vaccine is given immediately after birth, preferably within 24 hours, followed by two or four more doses at least four weeks apart.

Committed to youth

Aminata Sall Diallo is also in charge of the Senegalese Program for Youth Entrepreneurship, which aims to promote socio-economic development and integration of young people. As part of the project, the program has inaugurated high-tech laboratories for emerging technologies such as 3D printing, artificial intelligence and robotics. A program that is expected to reduce youth unemployment from 16% to 5% in Senegal by 2025. Over the past 5 years, more than 3000 jobs have been created.

For the past few years, she has been a special advisor to the Senegalese Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation.

In 2018, Aminata Diallo received the Golden Calabash Awards.