Chikwe Ihekweazu
Chikwe Ihekweazu | |
|---|---|
Chikwe Ihekweazu | |
| Assistant Director General at the World Health Organization | |
| Assumed office 1 November 2021 | |
| Director General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) | |
| In office 15 August 2016 – 2021 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Chikwe Andreas Ihekweazu Germany |
| Nationality | Nigerian |
| Spouse | Vivianne Ihekweazu |
| Education | UK Faculty of Public Health European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf University of Nigeria, Nsukka |
| Profession | Epidemiologist Public health physician Honorary Senior Lecturer |
Chikwe Ihekweazu // ⓘ is a Nigerian epidemiologist, public health physician and the World Health Organization's Assistant Director-General for Health Emergency Intelligence and Surveillance Systems.
Ihekweazu previously served as Director General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the agency responsible for protecting public health and safety through the control and prevention of communicable diseases in Nigeria. He was appointed to head the agency in August 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari.
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 (NICD), the UK's Health Protection Agency, and Germany's Robert Koch Institute (RKI). He has led several short-term engagements for the World Health Organization (WHO), mainly in response to major infectious disease outbreaks around the world. He was part of the WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).