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Professor Salako, graduated MBBS Hons. (Lond.) at the University College, Ibadan in 1961, winning the Sir Samuel Manuwa Gold Medal for the Best Student in his year. Since then, he has maintained a high level of performance in the field of biomedical research. His work on the treatment of Hypertension in the African and on Malaria has won wide acclaim for their scientific merit and impact on the health of the people.
Treatment of Hypertension (HT). He was the first person, in Nigeria, to undertake a systematic scientific evaluation of drug treatment of hypertension in Africans. Practically every antihypertensive drug in use in Nigeria today was initially evaluated by him and the current concepts of treatment of hypertension in blacks emanated, in part, from his work. He showed that, contrary to earlier beliefs that HT pursued a rapidly fatal course in Africans and responded poorly to drugs, it in fact responded well to treatment if the right drugs were used, bearing in mind the peculiar pathophysiology of HT in Africans. His work thus brought new hope of prolonged and useful life to hypertensive Africans. His work on ion transport across red cell membranes in hypertensives was seminal and evoked wide interest globally leading to hundreds of papers on the subject from all over the world.
Malaria. Professor Salako’s work in malaria was ground-breaking in several respects. His studies on early diagnosis and prompt, effective treatment of malaria has led to the improvement of survival rate in children with malaria even in rural areas and has enhanced the health status and economic productivity of adults. He pioneered the study of the mode of action of antimalarial drugs and thus improved the use, and prolonged the useful life, of the drugs. His work provided scientific basis for drug combination therapy in drug resistant malaria and also stimulated the search for new antimalarial drugs. He developed analytical methods for identifying and determining the concentration of antimalarial drugs in body fluids. He acquired capacity for cultivating the malaria parasite in vitro and used this to study the mechanisms of drug resistance in the malaria parasite. He also conducted one of the earliest evaluations of a malaria vaccine in Africa. All these were work at the cutting edge of science.
Recognition of the enormous scientific and clinical value of his work was swift nationally and internationally. He championed the strengthening of the national programme and led it for several years. He participated as member or chairman in international forums where the global disease control agenda was set and malaria placed at the top of the agenda. In this capacity, he assisted in attracting research strengthening grants to several institutions in Nigeria.
His malaria research laboratory at Ibadan has become a Mecca for scientists in Nigeria and other parts of Africa wanting to learn research techniques in malaria. His laboratory continues to turn out Masters and Doctorate graduates the first generation of who were personally supervised by him. His protégés now occupy professorial and other research leadership positions in Nigeria and beyond.
Recognition of the excellence of his work has led to several awards – DSc (Sheff.), DSc Honoris Causa (OOU), Honorary Fellow of the University of Ibadan, Distinguished Citizen of Ogun State, FAS, NMOM, CON
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