04/08/2026
Great
“Every patient deserves a fighting chance.” That belief has carried Dr. Halima Salisu Kabara from the wards of Kano to the policy tables of the World Health Organization.
With more than three decades in nursing, Dr. Kabara is one of Africa’s most accomplished critical care leaders, a sepsis advocate, educator, and healthcare administrator.
Her academic foundation is formidable. She holds a BNSc from Maryam Abacha American University, Niger, a PhD in Healthcare Administration from Atlantic International University, Honolulu, an MPA and a Postgraduate Diploma from Bayero University Kano, and is a Fellow of the West African Postgraduate College of Nurses and Midwives, FWAPCNM, awarded in Banjul in 2011.
At Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, she transformed critical care training in Nigeria. She founded the AKTH Life Support Training Centre and its American Heart Association-accredited simulation laboratory. Through it she introduced BLS, ACLS, PFCCS and NALS to Nigeria, and in 2023 brought Emergency Neurological Life Support, ENLS, to Africa via Kano.
That expertise took her global. Dr. Kabara has served on several WHO technical working groups on critical care, infection prevention, and sepsis. She contributed to WHO Sepsis Epidemiology meetings in Geneva in 2018 and 2019, the WHO Sepsis Learning Pilot in Lyon in 2022, and during COVID-19 served on the WHO Clinical Characterization and Management Working Group that developed the WHO Living Guideline on COVID-19. She also contributed to the WHO SARI Trial on respiratory support.
Sepsis remains her defining cause. She organized Nigeria’s first World Sepsis Day in 2012, led the Surviving Sepsis Campaign rollout in Kano in 2013, founded the SIDOK Sepsis Research Group in 2015, and co-founded the African Sepsis Alliance in 2016, where she served as Vice-Executive Director. For this work she received the Global Sepsis Award in Seoul in 2015, and has served on the Board of the Global Sepsis Alliance since 2019, re-elected in 2022 and 2025.
Her other honors include the Rufaida Al-Islamia Award in Dubai in 2013, the Bayero University Kano Award of Excellence for Nursing Education in 2018, recognition by Sigma Theta Tau International, and the Women in Science and Sepsis Care Award in 2025.
In nursing leadership, she has served as President of the Nigeria Society of Critical Care Nurses, Director of Communication for the African Federation of Critical Care Nurses, and Honorary Ambassador of the World Federation of Critical Care Nurses. She is also active with the Emirates Society of Critical Care Medicine, the EECC Network, and the NeuroCritical Care Society.
In research, she convened Nigeria’s first Regional Critical Care Congress in Calabar in 2014, secured the Africa Research Collaboration on Sepsis Grant in 2022, and currently leads the TETFund TASDAM Project on sepsis diagnosis and management, 2023 to 2025.
From Kano to Geneva, Dr. Kabara has saved lives, built systems, and inspired a generation. She remains proof that nursing leadership can change global health.
Compiled by Abubakar Umar Muhammad Nr GWANI
