With 10 years of experience, Dr. Abdalla graduated from the University of Juba, obtained a Sudanese Board M.D. in paediatrics and completed a fellowship training programme in Kenya which was supported by the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) and the International Society for Paediatric and Adolescents Diabetes (ISPAD) in September 2015.

She has since worked as an endocrinologist in one of the largest paediatric tertiary hospitals in her country, attending to paediatric endocrinology emergencies of all kinds. After joining one of Africa’s biggest diabetes centres, The Sudan Childhood Diabetes Centre (SCDC), she encountered different types of diabetes, comorbidities and complications.

In addition to neonatal and monogenic diabetes, she has seen patients with celiac disease, other autoimmune disorders, malnutrition-related diabetes and Mauriac syndrome, which are unique to Sudan and Africa. With more than 70 cases of rare genetic type of rickets, as well as other rarer cases like osteopetrosis, childhood Paget’s disease, and osteoporosis pseudoglioma syndrome, Dr. Abdalla specialises in bone disorders. She has also managed 150 patients with osteogenesis imperfecta.

Her experience expanded to other rare metabolic disorders and inborn errors of metabolism when she established a rare disease clinic at SCDC in 2018. Approximately 700 genetic cases, ranging from common to extremely rare, were diagnosed by her. Through different charity programmes, she also provided free enzyme replacement therapy for Gaucher disease and Hunter disease. Her involvement with the Novo Nordisk Managing Changing Diabetes in Children project led her to oversee 26 diabetes clinics across the country, write curriculums and train more than 90 paediatricians, more than 120 diabetes educators and dieticians, as well as create forums for diabetic children and their families.