The presidency has announced the appointment of Dr Ifedayo Morayo Adetifa, as the new director-general of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
This was disclosed through a statement from the Presidency which affirmed the approval of the appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday.
By the virtue of his appointment, Adetifa will be taking over from the former DG, Chikwe Ihekweazu, who recently got the job of an assistant director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in charge of health emergency intelligence.
Until his appointment, Dr Adetifa was an Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
In a similar development, President Buhari has also appointed the Vice-President Yemi Osibanjo, as the Chairman of a Health Sector Reform Committee, of which Adetifa was named a member, as revealed by Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman on Monday.
According to Shehu: “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”.
Adetifa’s Profile
From his profile as displayed on the website of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Adetifa, a paediatrician and infectious diseases epidemiologist, got his first degree from the University of Ilorin in Kwara state.
He had his undergraduate medical training at the University of Ilorin, Kwara, Nigeria and completed residency training in Paediatrics at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos, Nigeria for which he was awarded the Fellowship of the West Africa College of Physicians in Paediatrics.
The NCDC new boss studied Epidemiology at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where he bagged his MSC and PhD.
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.
