Leading public health expert and Fellow of the American College of Physicians, Dr. Jalal-Eddeen Saleh, will deliver the next AUN-Atiku Institute Lecture on Thursday, October 14, 2021, in the auditorium of the e-library. Time is 6.30pm and the entire AUN learning community is invited.
Dr. Jalal-Eddeen Saleh, the Northwest Zonal Coordinator and National Professional Officer for Malaria in the WHO National Country Office will be speaking on the topic: ‘The New Malaria Vaccine: What does it means’.
President Margee Ensign has lauded the choice of Dr. Jalal-Eddeen Saleh as Keynote Speaker for the resumed AUN-Atiku lecture series. These lectures bring noted scholars and public figures to campus to share their insights into critical issues of development.
“Dr. Saleh is one of the world’s top authorities on public health,” she said. “The University is delighted to welcome him as he shares with us the truly joyous news about the new malaria vaccine and its implications.”
The new vaccine has brought the menace of malaria, so very present in Africa particularly, back into global focus. Dr. Saleh, one of the world’s leading epidemiologists, will lead a discussion into the expected impact of its introduction on public health. Malaria remains a primary cause of preventable deaths in Nigeria, resulting in 95,000 deaths in 2018. Children under the age of 5 are the most vulnerable group targeted by this life-threatening disease and accounted for 67 percent of worldwide malaria cases in 2019.
A Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health, the United Kingdom, Dr. Jalal-Eddeen Saleh is an expert on maternal and child health as well as on infectious diseases.
In his present responsibility as Zonal Coordinator for the Northwest Zone, responsible for all WHO programs and operations across the zone, Dr. Saleh and his team of fellow experts provide technical assistance to Nigerian Governments at federal, state and LGA levels, and on all aspects of public health services to align with WHO public health objectives.
These include the GPW13 (WHO’s strategic Thirteenth General Program of Work, covering the period 2019-2023, and which aims to achieve measurable impacts on people’s health at the country level); the CCSIII, which is the third generation country cooperation strategy under WHO auspices; and the National Health Strategic Development Plan (NHSDP).
The WHO expert balances public health policy monitoring and evaluation with working with partners and program management to bridge the gap between scientific, medical, and governmental organizations. This helps ensure the achievement of universal health coverage in line with sustainable development goals of the United Nations
The AUN-Atiku Institute, formerly the AUN-Atiku Center for Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Development, was established in 2014 by President Margee Ensign who presided over the first lecture in the series. That lecture was delivered by the globally-acclaimed Latin American development activist, Professor Martin Burt, titled, "The Poverty Elimination Approach".