Director general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, has been appointed as the assistant director general in charge of health emergency intelligence at the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The director general of WHO, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, said in a statement issued yesterday that the appointment takes effect as from November 1, 2021.
He said the new appointee would lead the work on strengthening pandemic and epidemic intelligence globally, including heading the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin, which was launched yesterday.
The statement reads: “I am pleased to welcome Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu 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.
“I am confident that Dr. Ihekweazu’s appointment will help further accelerate WHO’s work in health emergencies.
“Please, join me in welcoming him to WHO.”
Commenting on the need for the new global initiative, German Chancellor, Dr. Angela Merkel, was quoted as saying, “The current COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that we can only fight pandemics and epidemics together. The new WHO Hub will be a global platform for pandemic prevention, bringing together various governmental, academic and private sector institutions.
“I am delighted that WHO chose Berlin as its location and invite partners from all around the world to contribute to the WHO hub.”
Similarly, the German minister of health, Jens Spahn, said there was need to identify pandemic and epidemic risks as quickly as possible.
“For that aim, we need to strengthen the global early warning surveillance system with improved collection of health-related data and inter-disciplinary risk analysis.
“Germany has consistently been committed to support WHO’s work in preparing for and responding to health emergencies, and the WHO Hub is a concrete initiative that will make the world safer,” he said.
The minister assured that the WHO Hub would work with partners globally to achieve a scale-up in innovation for existing forecasting and early warning capacities in WHO and member states.
He also said the WHO Hub would accelerate global collaborations across public and private sector organisations, academia, and international partner networks.
According to Spahn the pandemic intelligence hub would help countries to collaborate and co-create the necessary tools for managing and analysing data for early warning surveillance.
The WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence is a global platform for creating shared and networked access to vital multi-sectoral data, driving innovations in data analytics, and building the communities of practice needed to predict, prevent, detect, prepare for, and respond to worldwide health threats.
In addition, it is a new global collaboration of countries and partners dedicated to driving innovations to increase availability and linkage of diverse data; developing tools and predictive models for risk analysis; and monitoring disease control measures and infodemics.
The WHO Hub would enable partners from around the world to collaborate and co-create the tools and data access that all countries need to prepare, detect and respond to pandemic and epidemic risks.
Reacting to the appointment, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Kingsley Moghalu, congratulated Ihekweazu.
Moghalu who said they were both colleagues at the WHO in the past, said on his facebook wall that the new appointment as a reward for hard work.
“Congratulations to Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu of Nigeria on his appointment as assistant director general of the WHO in charge of the Pandemic and Epidemic Response Hub in Berlin. A very well deserved appointment.
“Proud of Chikwe, who handled Nigeria’s #COVID19 response brilliantly as Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. Chikwe and I were colleagues at WHO in Geneva years ago, and he has always been a dedicated and consummate professional.”
Meanwhile, Ihekweazu, said his appointment to lead the global initiative was in recognition of his stewardship as director general of the NCDC.
“It is in recognition of what we have done in Nigeria with the NCDC, the Federal Ministry of Health, and the Presidential Steering Committee in responding to this pandemic in Nigeria; in responding to many other infectious disease threats that have happened over the last few years – monkey pox, Lassa fever and the rest of them.
“Also, it is in recognising that in order to have a global initiative to respond, there is need to have deep knowledge about how local systems work. So, I think it is a recognition that the work that we have done over the past five years to develop this system will have a big contribution in the global context,” he said in an interview with ThisDay
Born in Germany, Ihekweazu is a graduate of the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and holds a Master in Public Health (MPH) degree 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 specialisation in the United Kingdom.
He is widely published in medical peer-review journals.
