Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Dr. Ifedayo Morayo Adetifa as the new Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
Adetifa will replace Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu who was recently appointed an assistant director-general of the global health body – World Health Organization.
In a statement issued by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity on Monday, the president also approved the setting up of a Health Sector Reform Committee.
The committee, headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as chairman, is expected to commence the development and implementation of a program for Nigeria in collaboration with the state governments and the FCT administration.
“President Buhari has approved the appointment of Dr. Ifedayo Morayo Adetifa as the new Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control,” part of the statement read.
Adetifa obtained his medical degree at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State and trained in Pediatrics and Child Health at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.
He also received the Fellowship of the West Africa College of Physicians in Pediatrics in 2005.
The NCDC new boss studied Epidemiology at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where he bagged his master’s and doctorate degrees.
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 Immunization Coordinating Committee and a member of the World Health Organization, Africa Region’s (WHO-AFRO) Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Group.
Adetifa served overseas as a Clinical Epidemiologist at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Program, Kiliufi, Kenya.
His vaccine policy advisory roles include membership of the Kenyan National Immunisation Coordination Committee, the WHO AFRO Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Group (RITAG), the Advisory Group of the WHO Malaria Vaccine Implementation Program, and the WHO Technical Advisory Group on RSV vaccines.
