We can scale our work at NCDC to support the rest of the world, says Chikwe Ihekweazu as he heads to WHO as Assistant DG
Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, the epidemiologist and public health physician who presently leads the fight against COVID-19 in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has been appointed Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, said Ihekweazu would join the WHO as 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 Intelligence in Berlin,” Ghebreyesus said.
“I am confident that Dr Ihekweazu’sIhekweazu’s appointment will help further accelerate WHO’s work in health emergencies.”
Ihekweazu is yet to respond to an email sent to him by a Neusroom correspondent.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson of NCDC, Emeka Oguanuo, told Neusroom he could not confirm if Ihekweazu will leave NCDC to assume his new position at the WHO.
“I don’t have that information,” Oguanuo said. “The best person to respond to your enquiry is the NCDC Director-General, who is unavailable to speak at the moment.”
Ghebreyesus and Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, inaugurated the new global WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin, Germany, on Wednesday, September 1, 2021.
In another statement, the WHO said, “the Hub will bring together partners worldwide to collaborate and create the tools and data needed for all countries to prepare, detect and respond to pandemic and epidemic risks.”
Speaking on a panel session during the inauguration of the hub monitored by Neusroom, Ihekweazu said he is proud of the WHO for taking the initiative and proud to take the work forward on behalf of the member states and the WHO leadership.
“When Dr Tedros [Ghebreyesus] shared the size of his vision with me for the future of the work that we do, it was a very scary thought and expectation…This is close to impossible, but we have a responsibility to do it,” he said.
Ihekweazu said in the coming months; he will be listening and open to all the ideas, “and make sure we collect all the ideas possible and find a way to make them into a reality. The work we’ve done at NCDC is a small example, and I think we can scale that to support the rest of the world.”
Nigeria confirmed the first case of COVID-19 on February 27, 2020, and since then, it has recorded more than 192,000 cases, over 2,400 deaths, and 11,203 active cases as of August 31, 2021.
As the Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Ihekweazu and the centre’s approach in managing the COVID-19 crisis has attracted huge commendation.
In July 2020, Ihekweazu was named in the Neusroom 100 Project for “his diligent and transparent leadership at NCDC.”
The Neusroom 100 Project recognised 100 People, Organisations, Countries and Things helping the world combat COVID-19 after it shuttered the world in 2020.
Neusroom said Ihekweazu’s diligent and transparent leadership is the reason most Nigerians know about the real situation of the COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria.
“Dr Ihekweazu has been forthcoming with timely updates on the pandemic as well as working hard to ensure that the spread of the virus is contained,” the report said. “The epidemiologist and public health physician have been widely acknowledged as one of the most efficient leaders in Nigeria due to his well-coordinated approach to handling the coronavirus outbreak in the country.”
A graduate of the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, and the Heinrich-Heine University, Dusseldorf, Germany, where he bagged a master’s in public health degree (MPH), Ihekweazu has more than 20 years of experience working in several national public health institutes, including the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), the UK’sUK’s Health Protection Agency, and Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
He was first appointed as DG of NCDC in August 2016 and reappointed by President Muhammadu Buhari in July 2019.
