President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Ifedayo Adetifa as the new director-general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
The new NCDC DG replaces Chikwe Ihekweazu, who was recently appointed as assistant director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in charge of health emergency intelligence.
The appointment was announced in a statement issued by Garba Shehu, spokesperson of the presidency on Monday.
According to the statement, Adetifa was also named a member of the health sector reform committee set up by Buhari and chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.
The committee is expected to undertake a review of all healthcare reforms adopted in the past two decades and lessons learnt and factor them into the development of the new Health Sector Reform Programme.
Adetifa is a Clinical Epidemiologist in the Epidemiology and Demography Department at the Programme and an Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
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He obtained his medical degree at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, trained in Paediatrics and Child Health at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, and received the Fellowship of the West Africa College of Physicians in Paediatrics in 2005.
He studied Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and was awarded his MSc by the University of London in 2009.
He got his PhD from the University of Amsterdam in 2012 for research in Tuberculosis Epidemiology.
His research interests are in vaccine impact/effectiveness studies, innovative approaches/surveillance tools for monitoring vaccination, Tuberculosis Epidemiology, and evidence synthesis including systematic reviews.
He was awarded the MRC/DFID African Research Leader Fellowship in 2018, is a member of the Kenyan National Immunisation Coordinating Committee, and is a member of the World Health Organisation, Africa Region’s (WHO-AFRO) Regional Immunisation Technical Advisory Group.
