Abdinasir Abubakar

Acting Manager and Programme Lead, Infectious Hazard Preparedness Unit, Health Emergencies Programme

WHO Regional Office for the Eartern Mediterranean, Egypt

Dr. Abdinasir Abubakar is the Acting Manager and Programme Lead for the Infectious Hazard Preparedness unit in the Health Emergencies Programme of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean in Cairo, Egypt. Currently, he is the Incident Manager for COVID-19 Pandemic Response in Eastern Mediterranean Regio and coordinates the response and provides technical support to 22 countries. 

He has more than 25 years of experience in public health and epidemiological research, working with national and international institutions. Dr. Abdinasir was involved in managing some of the worst epidemics within and outside the region, including COVID-19, MERS-CoV, meningococcal meningitis, cholera, Rift Valley fever, visceral leishmaniasis, anthrax and viral hemorrhagic fever. 

In June 2015, he was reassigned to WHO’s Regional Office in Cairo after spending seven years in WHO South Sudan Office with responsibility for providing technical support to Member States on improving their epidemiological surveillance and response capacity to prevent and control emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. He has been involved in much operational research in the area of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, including influenza, meningitis, cholera, yellow fever, nodding syndrome, visceral leishmaniasis and HIV/AIDS. He is the author and co-author of over 50 research articles published in international, peer-reviewed journals. 

Dr. Abubakar has a degree in Medicine from the Faculty of Medicine of the Somali National University in Mogadishu and a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology and International Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, United States of America.