Emmanuel Oga

Emmanuel Oga is a senior research epidemiologist whose work involves investigating the epidemiological correlates of substance use, the link to infectious diseases, and the effectiveness of harm reduction strategies for opioid use disorder. His research focuses on improving the health outcomes of marginalized populations affected by substance use, particularly through a commitment to community engagement and a focus on developing contextually appropriate interventions to address substance use and related health outcomes.

Dr. Oga currently leads RTI’s efforts across several projects funded by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative, including the HEALing Communities Study Data Coordinating Center, the Harm Reduction Research Network Coordination Center, and the Stay Safe Study.

Additionally, Dr. Oga is interested in understanding the impact of stigma on the health outcomes of vulnerable populations. He has done recent work on developing and validating measures to assess stigma among sex workers and people who use drugs, which has important implications for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

Dr. Oga does substantial in global health security and infectious disease surveillance, leveraging his prior experience as a health department epidemiologist. In this capacity, he provides expertise and technical assistance on disease outbreak prevention, detection, and response and is involved in supporting capacity development for public health emergency management. He is leading an epidemiological study aimed at generating descriptive surveillance data on the endemic and emerging pathogens of significance in Nigeria.

As part of Dr. Oga’s health security and disease surveillance portfolio, he is Principal Investigator of a CDC award for strengthening global health security that is implementing the 2005 International Health Regulations and the Global Health Security Agenda in Nigeria program. Dr. Oga is also Principal Investigator for a Defense Threat Reduction Agency grant for the surveillance of infectious disease threats in Nigeria.