President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Chikwe Ihekweazu as the new Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
Ihekweazu’s appointment was confirmed by the Federal Ministry of Information through a social media message.
“We are proud to announce that our Director General, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, has been re-appointed into office by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The NCDC remains committed to protecting the health of Nigerians, under the leadership of Dr Ihekweazu,” the message stated.
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The website of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control says Ihekweazu, a trained infectious disease epidemiologist, was, until January 2018, an acting director of the regional Centre for Disease Control for West Africa (CDC).
It is learnt that Ihekweazu has over 20 years experience working in senior public health and leadership positions in several national public health institutes, including the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), the UK’s health protection agency, and Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
The health professional has also led several short-term engagements for the World Health Organisation (WHO), mainly in response to major infectious disease outbreaks around the world.