Dr. Ombeva Malande, MD is a Vaccinologist & Senior consultant (Paediatric Infectious Diseases). He is a certified fellow of the College of Paediatricians of South Africa (infectious diseases subspecialty). He holds a subspecialty Master’s degree WITH DISTINCTION in Paediatric Infectious Diseases & Vaccinology from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. His PhD in Vaccinology research focused on Vaccine hesitancy in Africa. He is a research associate at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, South Africa. He holds a Masters of Medicine (MMed) degree in Paediatrics & Child Health of Makerere University, and a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) degree of Moi University. He is a senior consultant & Lecturer at Egerton University, and an Honorary Lecturer at Makerere University. He has consulted for WHO, UNICEF, MSD, Pfizer, GSK, Medscape, Sanofi Pasteur, Bharat, Facebook, Merc, GIZ among others. He has participated as a technical advisor and consultant on several National and International Taskforces and technical working groups and developed guidelines and SOPs on Ebola, HIV, Malaria, Rota Virus Diarrhoea, influenza, Pneumonia, TB and COVID-19. A convener of the widely acclaimed ECAVI vaccinology course for health professionals, and ECAVI Resource Mobilization Courses, hosted by ECAVI Vaccine Academy, he is the Director of East Africa Centre for Vaccines and Immunization (ECAVI) – a Vaccines systems support, Research, Advocacy and Training program in Eastern Africa. He is a weekly Columnist and Advocate on Child Health with the Standard Media Group in Kenya. Working with the Manu Chandaria Foundation, he helped set up two NOT FOR PROFIT Community Health Clinics in Kampala (in 2007) and Tororo (in 2012), Uganda. He has won numerous scientific and professional awards for his work. He is a celebrated book author; has widely published and is an editorial board member and reviewer for various scientific journals. His research interests include vaccines, vaccine hesitancy, antibiotic stewardship and emerging resistance patterns and clinical presentation and outcomes for extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) producing and Carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), VRE and MRSA in the African paediatric setting. He is a respected poet, and for over 20 years has written award winning poems for drama and music festivals for primary and high school children in Kenya. Registered as a medical practitioner in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa, he is a member of the Kenya Paediatric Association (KPA) Immunization working group, a KPA-AAP immunization champion, a member of the KPA committee on Child Health Policy & Advocacy, a member of the Uganda Paediatric Association (UPA) and the Southern African Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (SASPID).