1. Chikwe Ihekweazu was appointed to head the agency in August 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari.
26 Facts About Chikwe Ihekweazu
2.
Chikwe Ihekweazu trained as an infectious disease epidemiologist and has worked in senior public health and leadership positions in several National Public Health Institutes, including The National Institute for Communicable Diseases South Africa, the UK's Health Protection Agency, and Germany's Robert Koch Institute.
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Chikwe Ihekweazu has led several short-term engagements for the World Health Organization, mainly in response to major infectious disease outbreaks around the world.
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Chikwe Ihekweazu was part of the WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus disease 2019.
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Chikwe Ihekweazu's parents met while they were both studying and beginning their careers in Hamburg, Germany.
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Chikwe Ihekweazu's father was a Nigerian doctor and the mother, a German professor.
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Chikwe Ihekweazu holds an MBBS from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, a Diploma in Tropical Medicine from University of Heidelberg, Germany, a Masters in Public Health from Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf, Germany, a Fellowship of the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training as well as a Fellowship of the UK's Faculty of Public Health.
8.
In October 2001, Chikwe Ihekweazu worked as a Medical Epidemiologist in the Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, a German Federal Government Agency and Research Institute responsible for disease control and prevention.
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In February 2003, Chikwe Ihekweazu became a Public Health Analyst at Haringey Primary Care trust, National Health Service, England.
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Chikwe Ihekweazu applied his skills and experience in field epidemiology across a wide range of public health challenges, mostly during outbreaks of infectious diseases.
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In 2011, Chikwe Ihekweazu moved to Johannesburg, South Africa to become the co-director of the Centre for Tuberculosis at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases with primary responsibility for the epidemiology section.
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Chikwe Ihekweazu's mandate included designing the service, recruiting the leadership provincial epidemiologists, initiating a supportive relationship in the nine provinces of South Africa, developing epidemiology capacity and surveillance for the institute.
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Chikwe Ihekweazu led the implementation of a nation-wide drug resistance survey for tuberculosis and the implementation of a new integrated surveillance system for tuberculosis in South Africa.
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In February 2014, Chikwe Ihekweazu became a part-time senior adviser at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Johannesburg, South Africa.
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Chikwe Ihekweazu served as the founding Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control from 2016 to 2021.
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Chikwe Ihekweazu led the response to large outbreaks of infectious diseases, as well as a re-emergence of monkeypox and yellow fever in the country.
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From 2020, Chikwe Ihekweazu served on the WHO's IHR Emergency Committee for COVID-19, chaired by Didier Houssin.
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Chikwe Ihekweazu led Nigeria's public health response to the pandemic through NCDC.
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Chikwe Ihekweazu served as a Member of the Africa Task Force for Coronavirus Steering Committee, where he chaired the Infection Prevention Control Sub-Committee, and was a Member of Nigeria's Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
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In November 2021, Chikwe Ihekweazu was appointed as Assistant Director General for the Division of Health Emergency Intelligence and Surveillance Systems at WHO.
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Chikwe Ihekweazu serves as the head of the WHO Hub for Epidemic and Pandemic Intelligence, an initiative established by the WHO and supported by the German government to strengthen pandemic and epidemic intelligence through better data, better analytics, and better decisions.
22.
Chikwe Ihekweazu sits on the board of the one of Nigeria's largest NGOs - the Society for Family Health, as well as the Health Advocacy Organisation Nigeria Health Watch.
23.
Chikwe Ihekweazu is a recipient of the National Productivity Order of Merit and Officer of the Order of the Niger awarded in 2021 and 2022 respectively by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, for his service to Nigeria.
24.
Chikwe Ihekweazu was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in January 2022.
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Between 2016 and 2018, as CEO of NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu led several advocacy activities for the passage of the NCDC Bill.
26.
Chikwe Ihekweazu is married to Vivianne Chikwe Ihekweazu and they have two children.