NCDC boss, Ihekweazu, gets WHO job

Ihekweazu and other members of the new global WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence were inaugurated, yesterday, in Berlin, Germany, by Director-General of WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr. Angela Merkel.

Ghebreyesus, in a statement, said: “I am pleased to welcome Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu is an Assistant Director-General for Health Emergency Intelligence from November 1, 2021.

“He will lead the work on strengthening pandemic and epidemic intelligence globally, including heading the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic.”

“Dr. Ihekweazu is currently the Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. He was trained as an infectious disease epidemiologist, 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.

“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.