NCDC-DG Chikwe Ihekweazu Receives Dual WHO Appointment
The Director-General of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) has been appointed as the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Assistant Director-General in charge of Health Emergency Intelligence in Berlin, and as Head of the Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence Hub in Germany.
Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO congratulated Chikwe Ihekweazu on his appointment as the global health organization’s deputy in charge of health emergency intelligence.
“Glad to appoint Chikwe Ihekweazu as Head of the new World Health Organization (WHO) Hub for pandemic and epidemic intelligence. He brings a wealth of experience and will serve a dual role as the head of the Hub in Germany and as Assistant Director-General for Health Emergency Intelligence in Berlin.”
Chikwe Ihekweazu assumes responsibilities for his new position on November 1, 2021.
Born in Germany, Chikwe Ihekweazu obtained a bachelor’s degree in Medicine from the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a master’s degree in Public Health from Heinrich-Heine University, Dusseldorf, Germany.
The newly appointed became Head of the NCDC in August 2016. As Director-General, he has led the agency through seamless transformation and directed effective response to significant outbreaks of viral diseases as well as the re-emergence of some including monkeypox and yellow fever. The NCDC-DG has also been at the vanguard of Nigeria’s COVID-19 response and management.
According to WHO, Chikwe 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 Disease, the United Kingdom’s Health Protection Agency, and Germany’s Robert Koch Institute.
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Before he was appointed Head, NCDC in 2016, Chikwe was Managing Partner at EpiAfric, a public health consultancy firm that provides expertise in health project design and evaluation, research, health communication and postgraduate professional development. He was also the curator of the health policy advocacy platform: Nigeria Health Watch. From 2011 to 2014, he was Co-Director of the Centre for Tuberculosis at the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases in Johannesburg, South Africa. Before this, he served as Consultant Medical Epidemiologist, working for the UK’s Health Protection Agency and leading the South East Regional Epidemiology team.
Chikwe has led several short-term consultancies for the WHO, mainly in response to major infectious disease outbreaks including two-time Ebola outbreaks, taking him to work in Nigeria, Geneva, Liberia, Malawi, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Turkey.
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 a TED Fellow and Co-founder TEDxEuston and TEDxAbuja.
A medical professional, he sits on the boards of NGOs: Public Health Foundation of Nigeria, Society for Family Health, Education as a Vaccine and Africa Policy Advisory of ONE.
Chikwe is widely published in medical peer-reviewed journals in his field.