President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday announced the confirmation of the appointment of Ifedayo Adetifa as the director-general of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
This is following the resignation of Chikwe Ihekweazu after his appointment as the World Health Organisation, WHO’s assistant director-general of Health Emergency Intelligence.
According to a statement by Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, “President Buhari has also approved the appointment of Dr Ifedayo Morayo Adetifa as the new Director General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)”.
Who Is Ifedayo Adetifa?
Adetifa is an associate professor/clinical epidemiologist who received his undergraduate training at the University of Ilorin, Kwara, Nigeria.
According to his autobiography on the website of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, “I received my 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 I was awarded the Fellowship of the West Africa College of Physicians in Paediatrics. I studied for the MSc in Epidemiology at the School and got my PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
“I joined the School in June 2014 and work overseas as a Clinical Epidemiologist at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme,Kilifi, Kenya.
“The overarching aim of my research is to provide evidence for vaccine policy in low-and-middle-income countries especially those in Africa. My 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.
ALSO READ: ‘This Nonsense Must Stop’: CJN orders probe of 3 judges over verdicts
“Prior to joining the School, I worked as a Clinical Epidemiologist at the Medical Research Council Unit, The Gambia at the LSHTM. My research interests and work then were in Tuberculosis Epidemiology.
“I am a Distance Learning tutor for Basic Statistics with Computing (EPM101) and Study Design: Writing a grant (EPM201) modules of the MSc Epidemiology and I organise and teach on the Vaccines session on the DTMH course at the school.
“In addition, I teach on the Postgraduate Diploma in Research Methods course at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme/Pwani University, Kilifi, in Kenya.
“My research interests are infectious diseases epidemiology specifically vaccine impact studies including assessments the full effects of vaccines (indirect and non-specific effects of vaccines, impact on AMR); assessments of crude and effective vaccine coverage, serological surveys of population immunity and innovative approaches to increasing vaccine coverage.
“I am a co-principal investigator and co-investigator respectively on the following vaccine effectiveness studies in Kenya-Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine Impact Study (PCVIS) and the Rotavirus Immunisation Programme Evaluation in Kenya (RIPEK)
“My group currently works on vaccine seroepidemiology projects funded via a 2019 MRC/DFID African Research Leader Fellowship.
“This will combine epidemiology and mathematical modelling to serology data to monitor vaccination coverage, assess the impact of vaccination programmes, and to address specific policy questions in Kenya”.
