Education = Prevention: Physician Called to Educate Public on Infectious Disease Prevention

Here's how Chinelo Animalu, MD, describes her role as an infectious disease physician:

"We deal with those cases that make everybody else run in the opposite direction," she says.

An associate professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases in the College of Medicine at UT Health Science Center, Dr. Animalu is also the medical director for Infectious Disease and Geographic Medicine for Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis. Her primary clinical practice is at Methodist University Hospital.

Born in Nigeria, Dr. Animalu says her early years set the stage for the work that is her passion today.

"Growing up in Nigeria, I was very sickly and had to take medicines for different types of infections," she recalls. She would see the devastating results, including blindness, disfigurement, and death, from common infections that were left untreated due to a shortage of physicians, a lack of medications, and inadequate health care facilities.

"I used to be traumatized seeing these people," she says. "I'm like, 'Why can't somebody help them?' And so, that's not only what gave me that foundation in medicine, but also the foundation in infectious disease, because what kills us the most in Africa is going to be infections."

Dr. Animalu earned her medical degree from the University of Nigeria and completed a residency there. She married and immigrated to the United States. An internal medicine residency at St. Joseph Hospital in Chicago followed. She later earned a master's degree in public health at Tulane University.

"That's my calling," she says. "My specialty when I was in Nigeria was actually public health."

Dr. Animalu moved to Memphis for a fellowship in infectious disease at UT Health Science Center. She joined the College of Medicine faculty as an assistant professor in 2016 and became an associate professor in 2022.

"I do two different kinds of work - my clinical work at Methodist and then my outreach," she says. The latter role she does as a volunteer because she sees a need that must be met.

Dr. Animalu speaks at meetings, churches, schools, community events, and in the media about the prevention of infectious diseases.

"Based on the experiences back home in Nigeria and in Africa in general, because I've been to so many African countries, the problem is still the same - lack of knowledge, people just dying from preventable causes," she explains.

She is particularly vocal about preventing HIV infections. Memphis has the second- highest rate of new infections in the county, with most new cases among those ages 15 to 24.

"This is devastating, because obviously there's something we're doing wrong," Dr. Animalu says.

"The clinic is for treatment. My own work - what I want us to do is prevention, not treatment."

However, awards are not her goal. Educating the public is.

Last year, she launched a talk show on YouTube, "Medical Class 901 with Dr. Chi," to do just that. She has educated viewers on antibiotics, HIV, common respiratory infections, and other infectious diseases. The program, also available on Facebook and Instagram, has more than 2,000 followers.

"The whole idea of 'Medical Class 901' was just to share information. I have other physicians I invite to come on this show to talk about primary care in whatever their own specialties are," she says. "Because in Memphis, even though we have major hospitals and health care organizations, the average public, they are lacking so much in terms of health care issues and understanding."