US Center for Disease Control celebrates 20 years in Namibia
United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Namibia Country Director, Dr Brian Baker will be hosting a public talk titled, 20 years CDC in Namibia, on 25 April at 19:00 at the Namibia Scientific Society.
At the end of 2022, CDC celebrated their 20th anniversary in Namibia.
The Society said Dr Baker will give a public talk online on how the 20-year partnership in health between Namibia and America has helped to prevent, detect and respond to disease threats and improve the health of Namibians. “The CDC opened their first office in Windhoek in 2002, with subsequent satellite offices in Oshakati, Rundu, and Katima Mulilo and they are the US government public health agency with the mission to save lives,” they added.
Dr Baker began his CDC career in 2010 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer and after completing his fellowship in 2012, he continued with CDC as a Field Medical Officer, at the Los Angeles Country Department of Public Health.
In this role, he worked to strengthen TB surveillance, facilitated routine adoption of novel TB diagnostics and therapeutics, and guided outbreak investigations. He also provided direct clinical care to clients with TB and TB/HIV. In 2017, he joined the Center for Global Health’s Division of Global HIV and TB as the Associate Director for Tuberculosis, based at CDC’s field research station in Kisumu, Kenya.
Afterwards he served as the Associate Director for Data and Science at CDC Tanzania and CDC Tanzania’s acting Country Director during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr Baker joined CDC Namibia as Country Director in January 2022.
