President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Dr Ifedayo Morayo Adetifa as the new Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
The newly appointed Adetifa will be replacing the outgoing Director-General of NCDC, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, who was a few days ago, appointed an Assistant Director-General in charge of health emergency intelligence of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
This disclosure is contained in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja, by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, who also said the president approved the setting up of a Health Sector Reform Committee.
The Presidential Spokesman said that Adetifa has also been named a member of the health sector reform committee, which will be chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, with the committee expected to commence the development and implementation of a programme for Nigeria in collaboration with the state governments and the FCT administration.
What the Presidential Spokesman is saying
The statement from Garba Shehu reads, “President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the setting up of a Health Sector Reform Committee to commence the development and implementation of a Health Sector Reform Programme for Nigeria in collaboration with the State Governments and the FCT administration.
“This is sequel to a Health Sector Diagnostic Review Report developed by a consultant, Vesta Healthcare Partners and the Federal Ministry of Health.
“The committee will 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.
“Meanwhile, President Buhari has also approved the appointment of Dr Ifedayo Morayo Adetifa as the new Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). The President has named him as a member of this important committee.”
What you should know
Adetifa obtained his medical degree at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State and completed his residency training in Paediatrics and Child Health at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.
He also received the Fellowship of the West Africa College of Physicians in Paediatrics in 2005. The NCDC new boss studied Epidemiology at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where he bagged his MSC and PhD.
Until his appointment, Dr Ifedayo Morayo Adetifa was an Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Adetifa’s research interests are in vaccine impact/effectiveness studies, innovative approaches/surveillance tools for monitoring vaccination, Tuberculosis Epidemiology, and evidence synthesis including systematic reviews.
In 2018 he was awarded the MRC/DFID African Research Leader Fellowship. He is also a member of the Kenyan National Immunisation Coordinating Committee and a member of the World Health Organisation, Africa Region’s (WHO-AFRO) Regional Immunisation Technical Advisory Group.
Adetifa served overseas as a Clinical Epidemiologist at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kiliufi, Kenya.
His vaccine policy advisory roles include membership of the Kenyan National Immunisation Coordination Committee, the WHO AFRO Regional Immunisation Technical Advisory Group (RITAG), the Advisory Group of the WHO Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme, and the WHO Technical Advisory Group on RSV vaccines.
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