Dr. Emeka Asadu was appointed Coordinator of the National Arbovirus and Vectors Research Centre in October 2017. Prior to his appointment, Dr. Asadu was the Head of HIV Treatment, Care and Support in the National HIV/AIDS Division of the Federal Ministry of Health. He is a medical doctor and holds a master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Nigeria.
In the HIV/AIDS Division, he exercised the additional responsibility of serving as the Secretary of the National Task Team on Antiretroviral Therapy from 2010 to 2017 and the Chairman Technical Advisory Committee of the Africa Network for the Care of Children affected by HIV/AIDS (ANECCA) with headquarters in Kampala Uganda from 2015-2017. He relinquished both responsibilities upon assuming the new position of Coordinator of the National Arbovirus and Vectors Research Centre.
In discharging his responsibility first as the focal officer for TB/HIV collaboration and subsequently as Head HIV Treatment, Care and Support, Dr. Emeka Asadu played a pioneering role in institutionalizing TB/HIV collaboration in Nigeria, co-supervising the expansion of TB/HIV collaboration from zero to 36 states of the Federation between 2006 to 2012. In 2009 he raised the original concept paper for the decentralization of HIV Treatment and Care in Nigeria, midwifed the early stages of implementation of decentralised ART services and coordinated the entire process that led to the development of the first edition of National Guidelines for decentralization of ART services in Nigeria.
Since 2010 he has been actively involved in the development of national policy documents on HIV/AIDS including successive National Guidelines for HIV Prevention Treatment and Care, the National Acceleration Plan for Pediatric HIV Treatment and Care and the National Implementation Plan for Scale up of Viral Load Testing in Nigeria.
Dr. Asadu is an untiring advocate of the adoption homegrown interventions for the control of diseases of public health significance in Nigeria and he plans to bring this attitude to bear on the national response to arboviruses and associated disease vectors. In the coming months NAVRC will look inwards and seek to identify and promote approaches to disease vector control that are sensitive to and receptive of our own in-country peculiarities.
In doing this NAVRC will strive to build a robust partnerships that at once engages health sector and non-health sector entities like ministries of environment and agriculture, the private sector and most importantly the general public.
In summary NAVRC will promote a pragmatic approach to the control of arboviral and related diseases transmission that will build on existing strategies, accelerate research and seek to build sustainable alliances between government, NGOs and the lay public.