| Dr Faisal Shuaib, OON, MPH, DrPH | |||||||
| Office: | Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency | ||||||
| President: | Muhammadu Buhari | ||||||
| Term Start: | January 11, 2017 | ||||||
| Term End: | October 20, 2023 | ||||||
| Predecessor: | Dr. Emmanuel Odu | ||||||
| Office1: | Incident Manager of the Nigeria Ebola Emergency Operations centre (EEOC) | ||||||
| Term Start1: | 2014 | ||||||
| Term End1: | 2014 | ||||||
| Office2: | Deputy Incident Manager (DIM) and Chief Operations Officer of the National Polio Emergency Operation Center | ||||||
| Term Start2: | 2014 | ||||||
| Term End2: | 2014 | ||||||
| Birth Name: | Faisal Shuaib | ||||||
| Birth Date: | 15th August | ||||||
| Education: | Ahmadu Bello University (MD) University of Alabama at Birmingham (DrPH) | ||||||
| Awards: | Officer of the Order of Niger, National Productivity Order of Merit, Nigerian Excellence Award in Public Service | ||||||
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Faisal Shuaib OON, MPH, DrPH, is a Nigerian medical doctor and public health specialist. He served as the executive director and chief executive officer of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, a parastatal of Federal Ministry of Health (Nigeria)[1] from 2017-2023. Prior to his appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2017, he was a Senior Programme Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, USA.[2] [3]
Shuaib served as the Incident Manager/Head of the Nigeria Ebola Emergency Operation Center during the July - October 2014 outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease.[4] [5] In addition to serving as a Senior Technical Advisor to the Minister of State for Health on Immunization and Polio Eradication, he was also the Chief Operations Officer/Deputy Incident Manager of the National Polio Emergency Operation Centre.[6] [7]
He has received several awards such as the Officer of the Order of the Niger[8] of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (OON), The Nigeria Excellence Award in Public Service (NEAPS),[9] National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM),[10] The Africa COVID-19 hero award and many others.
Dr Shuaib is a respected expert on managing epidemics and has authored and co-authored over 70 peer-reviewed scientific publications. He serves as a valuable resource for public health officials and has advised the WHO and the Nigeria's Ministry of Health on a range of subjects.
Faisal Shuaib holds a medical degree from the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria. He further went on to earn a Master of Public health from the University of Lagos in 1998 as well as a Doctor of Public Health Degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham USA[11] [12] [13] in 2020 where he earned a distinction.
His early career started off at the Nasarawa State Ministry of Health[14] where he rose to become the Director of Primary Healthcare and Disease Control. He also served as the WHO State and Zonal Coordinator of Nasarawa and North Central Zone. Shuaib also worked as Research Associate at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Until his appointment as Executive Director/CEO of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency in January 2017, he was a Senior Program Officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Seattle, WA, USA. At the BMGF, Shuaib was responsible for developing and implementing strategies on polio outbreak response activities in Africa.[11]
Shuaib coordinated Nigeria's successful response to the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) as the Incident Manager of the Ebola Emergency Operations center (EEOC) in 2014. In this position, he was in charge of establishing a comprehensive system that provided quality diagnostic, treatment, care and follow up of EVD patients, their contacts and their families. He was also a member of the six-man panel established to assess the response of the World Health Organization (WHO) to the global Ebola outbreak in 2014.[13] [15]
While working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as Senior Program Officer in charge of polio surveillance and outbreak response in Africa, he developed an innovative smartphone application (AVADAR[16]) and strategy that quadrupled the rate of detection of polio-like cases in Africa and was used to enhance COVID-19 reporting and response.
He previously provided technical advice to the Nigeria Ministry of Health and National Primary Health Care Development Agency in the area of immunization and polio eradication activities.[6] [3] [5]
Shuaib was the deputy Incident Manager (DIM) and Chief Operations Officer of the National Polio Emergency Operation Center. As deputy Incident Manager (DIM) of the National Polio EOC, he co-managed the overall coordination of the polio eradication program in Nigeria and also led the Operations Working Group within the EOC, which is responsible for coordinating the implementation of field-level strategies adopted by the larger group that included international development partners. In 2014, he also led the EOC syndicate that jointly developed and implemented new strategies to deliver vaccine to children living in security compromised areas of Borno and Yobe states. As part of this work, he led the team that implemented the first-ever, large-scale community-based campaign using Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV).[6] [17]
Under his watch as the executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (the primary agency with a mandate to control preventable diseases, eradicate polio, and limit the occurrence and impact of diseases using education, immunization and other proven interventions) he piloted the campaigns for eradication of the Wild Polio Virus.[18] This led to the World Health Organization declaring Nigeria free of the wild poliovirus on 25 August 2020.[19] [20]
In recognition of his outstanding achievements, Dr Faisal Shuaib[21] has received numerous awards and honors. Some of which are: