Chikwe Ihekweazu has been appointed as an assistant
director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in charge of health
emergency intelligence.
Ihekweazu is currently the director-general of the Nigeria
Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
A statement by Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general,
said Ihekweazu will lead the work on strengthening pandemic and epidemic
intelligence globally.
According to him, the appointment comes into effect on
November 1, 2021
“I am pleased to
welcome Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu as an Assistant Director-General for Health
Emergency Intelligence from November 1, 2021,” Ghebreyesus said.
“He will lead the work on strengthening pandemic and
epidemic intelligence globally, including heading the WHO Hub for Pandemic and
Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin.
“I am confident that Dr Ihekweazu’s appointment will help
further accelerate WHO’s work in health emergencies.”
According to WHO, Ihekweazu was trained as an infectious
disease epidemiologist and has over 20 years of experience working in senior
public health and leadership positions in several national public health
institutes, including the South African National Institute for Communicable
Diseases, the United Kingdom’s Health Protection Agency, and Germany’s Robert
Koch Institute.
“He has led several short-term engagements for WHO, mainly
in response to major infectious disease outbreaks around the world,” the agency
said.
“Dr Ihekweazu, a Nigerian national, who was born in Germany,
is a graduate of the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria and has a
Masters in Public Health from the Heinrich-Heine University, Dusseldorf,
Germany. In 2003, he was awarded a Fellowship for the European Programme for
Intervention Epidemiology Training and subsequently completed his Public Health
specialization in the United Kingdom.
“He is widely published in medical peer-reviewed journals.”
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