President Akufo-Addo has appointed Dr Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, a former Deputy Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), as the Presidential Coordinator for the Government’s Coronavirus Response Programme.
In that role, he will be President Akufo-Addo’s point man for the response effort and will be responsible for pulling together and co-ordinating all aspects of the response programme by Government.
Dr. Asamoa-Baah comes to the job with a
suitable wealth of experience such as:
- supervising
the creation of a new Health Emergency Programme in WHO following the Ebola
outbreak in 2014,
- leading
WHO’s work in developing the Ebola vaccine,
- leading
the team that developed a formal process of quality control for the training
and verification of Emergency Medical Teams,
- providing
leadership for the development of the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework
in 2011,
- leading
the development of WHO R+D Blueprint to cut the time needed to develop and
manufacture candidate products from years to months,
- chairing
the WHO Senior Management Committee that developed strategies and plans for the
control of epidemics (Ebola, Merco, Zika and Famine),
- leading
the global efforts to develop a streamlined and integrated strategy for
Neglected Tropical Diseases and in the process helped to coin the name “Neglected
Tropical Disease”,
- supervising
the technical development of a rapid and reliable diagnostic test suitable for
use in resource restrained settings for sleeping sickness and Chagas disease,
- supervising
the mapping of NTDs in sub-Saharan Africa, pinpointing areas of endemicity and
allowing a much more targeted approach to mass drug administration and the
surveillance needed to oversee its impact,
- developing
technical strategies for the management of diseases with epidemic potential,
- working
to establish vaccine stockpiles for meningitis, smallpox, cholera and yellow
fever; and
- working
to establish of protocols for the management of hemorrhagic fevers.
Dr. Asamoa-Baah holds a Masters Degree in Community Health from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK, and a Bachelors Degree in Medicine and Surgery (MB.Ch.B) from the University of Ghana Medical School.
He also holds Postgraduate Diplomas in Health Planning from Keele University, UK, Health Economics from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland and Health Policy from the University of Wisconsin, USA.
