A political economist and presidential aspirant, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, says Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu’s appointment by the World Health Organisation (WHO) is well deserved.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ihekweazu, the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), has been appointed Assistant Director-General of Health Emergency Intelligence at the WHO.
Ihekweazu’s appointment, which takes from Nov. 1, was conveyed in a letter signed by the WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, on Wednesday.
In a congratulatory message he copied to NAN in Lagos, Moghalu, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, said: ” I am proud of Chikwe, who handled Nigeria’s COVID-19 response brilliantly as the NCDC Director-General.
“Ihekweazu and I were colleagues at WHO in Geneva, years ago; he has always been a dedicated and consummate professional.”
NAN reports that with the appointment, Ihekweazu will lead the work on strengthening pandemic and epidemic intelligence globally, including heading the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin, Germany.
Ihekweazu is an infectious disease epidemiologist with over 20 years experience.
He has held senior public health and leadership positions.
Among the places he worked are South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases, United Kingdom Health Protection Agency, and Germany’s Robert Koch Institute.
He has led several short-term engagements for WHO mainly in response to major infectious disease outbreaks around the world.
Ihekweazu, a Nigerian born in Germany, is a graduate of the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria.
He has a Masters in Public Health from the Heinrich-Heine University, Dusseldorf, Germany.
In 2003, he was awarded a Fellowship for the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training, and subsequently completed his Public Health specialisation in the United Kingdom. (NAN)
