NCDC BOSS, Chikwe Ihekweazu To Head New WHO Pandemic Data-Driven Hub In Germany

Posted by Niyi Adeyi African News, Featured, Latest Headlines, News, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Thursday, September 2nd, 2021

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The World Health Organization (WHO) says Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director-General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), will head its newly inaugurated Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence based in Berlin, Germany.

Outgoing German Federal Chancellor, Dr Angela Merkel, and the WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, inaugurated the hub on Wednesday to better prepare and protect the world from global disease threats.

Dr. Ihekweazu will lead the work on strengthening pandemic and epidemic intelligence globally, including heading the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin beginning November 1.

The NCDC boss, 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.

Similarly, he has led several short-term engagements for WHO, mainly in response to major infectious disease outbreaks around the world.

He is a graduate of the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria and has a Masters in Public Health (MPH) from the Heinrich-Heine University, Dusseldorf, Germany.

In 2003, he was awarded a Fellowship for the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET) and subsequently completed his Public Health specialization in the United Kingdom. He is widely published in medical peer-review journals.