When epidemiologist Chikwe Ihekweazu posted a blog in 2010 warning that his home country of Nigeria would “pay the price for the hard times” if a pandemic occurred. He never imagined that the government would not only ask for his advice, but also for his leadership.
From NCDC to the NEW WHO pandemic center
In 2016, he was tasked with leading the nascent Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC). Where it would increase agency staffing and laboratory capacity, and navigate the country through waves of infectious disease outbreaks.
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These accomplishments, including his guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic, caught the attention of the World Health Organization (WHO). Which announced earlier this month that Ihekweazu would lead its new Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence Center in Berlin.
Details about the center, which will initially be funded by the German government, are scant. But the WHO has presented it as an initiative to collect better data on infectious diseases from around the world. And thus evaluate them so that the authorities can make quick and informed decisions in health emergencies.
“The world must be able to detect new potentially pandemic events and monitor disease control measures in real time to create effective pandemic and epidemic risk management.” So said Dr. Tedros. “This center will be key to that end, leveraging innovations in data science for public health surveillance and response. And it will create systems for us to share and expand expertise in this area globally. “
What we know about the NEW WHO center
The WHO Center, which is to receive an initial investment of 100 million euros from the Federal Republic of Germany. It will draw on broad and diverse alliances from many professional disciplines and the latest technology to link data, tools and communities of practice. So that actionable data and information are shared for the common good.
The WHO Center is part of the WHO Health Emergencies Program and will represent a new collaboration of countries and partners around the world. Which will drive innovations to increase the availability of key data, develop next-generation analytical tools and predictive models for risk analysis, and link communities of practice around the world.
What role will it have?
Essentially, the WHO Center will support the work of public health experts and policy makers in all countries by providing them with the necessary tools to anticipate, detect and assess the risks of epidemics and pandemics, so that they can make swift decisions. to prevent and respond to future public health emergencies.
“Despite the investments made over decades, COVID-19 has revealed large gaps in the global ability to anticipate, detect, assess and respond to outbreaks that threaten the world’s population,” said the Dr. Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program. “The WHO Information Center on Pandemics and Epidemics is designed to develop access to data. The analytical tools and communities of practice to fill those gaps, promote collaboration and sharing, and protect the world from these crises in the future. “
The objectives of the center will be:
- Improve access methods to multiple vital data sources to generate signals and knowledge about the emergence, evolution and impact of diseases.
- Develop cutting-edge tools to process, analyze, and model data for detection, evaluation, and response.
- Provide WHO with tools to support better and faster decision-making on how to deal with signs of outbreaks and the outbreaks themselves.
- Connect and catalyze the institutions and networks that develop solutions for disease outbreaks in the present and the future.
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