By Abdul Alli, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Gambo Gumel Aliyu as the Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS for an initial term of four years.
The development was against the backdrop of the resignation on Tuesday of the Director-General of the agency, Sani Aliyu.
In a statement by the Permanent Secretary, General Services at the Office of the Secretary to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), Olusegun Adekunle, said the appointment of the new head of NACAwas in line with the provision of Section 8, Sub-Section (4) of National Agency for the Control of Aids (Establishment) Act, 2007.
The appointment, he said, was with effect from June 26.
According to a source at the agency, Mr Aliyu resigned from his position on Tuesday.
Mr Aliyu is a public health physician with a background in HIV Epidemiology and Disease Prevention.
Until his appointment in 2016, he was a consultant in Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at Cambridge University, United Kingdom.
Aliyu conducted implementation and prevention science research on HIV distribution and transmission dynamics in general and key affected populations to enhance access to prevention and treatment services by key populations in resource limited settings. He co-pioneered mobile HCT to most-at-risk, hard to reach populations in Abuja, Nigeria in 2005 in an important study that demonstrated lack of access to HIV treatment and prevention and the dynamic of acute infection in general and key affected populations.
The deliverables of the study were used to optimize HIV incidence assay developed by CDC and currently in use to detect early infections in cross-sectional samples. He had work with CDC and the Government of Nigeria under the SHIELD grant to evaluate two national HIV treatment programs: Test and Start, and Community ART, which are important for the country’s attainment of 90-90-90.
Aliyu explores HIV occurence and associations with Tuberculosis and Malaria tailored towards creating evidence-based actionable information to guide implementation of programs for disease prevention and control in resource limited settings.
One of his recent work on the pattern of occurrence of Mycobacterial diseases and their associations with HIV was the first to report the prevalence, distribution and pattern of NTM among HIV suspects in Nigeria. The NTMs he isolated were a mixture of those reported in the US and some newer strains.
Owing to the track records of Dr Aliyu, it is evidently clear the Buhari has successfully put a round peg in a round hole.