A former Minister of Health in Nigeria, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu has got a new United Nations appointment.
Chukwu, who served under ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, received accolades then for his ministry’s handling of the Ebola outbreak.
He has now been appointed a member of the One Health Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance by the United Nations Interagency Coordination Group (IACG).
The IACG is a body of three agencies of the United Nations, namely the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The appointment was announced in a letter to Chukwu, signed by the Directors General of the agencies, Qu Dangyu, Dr. Monique Eloit and Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, respectively.
According to the letter, “the purpose of the One Health Leaders Group is to provide high level advisory and advocacy functions for the Tripartite Organizations – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Organization for Animal Health and the World Health Organization – to support their core mandate of responding to the global Antimicrobial Resistance crises in a multisectoral One Health approach”.
The WHO explains that Antimicrobial Resistance occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.
The appointment is for a three year period effective from November 20, 2020.
