Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin, who led Ethiopia through the COVID-19 pandemic and other significant public health challenges, looks forward to supporting leaders working to “make the world a better place for everyone, everywhere.”
March 6, 2024—Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin was sworn in as Ethiopia’s Minister of Health on March 12, 2020—the day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. That night, Ethiopia detected its first case of the virus.
“It was a very difficult time,” Gebremedhin said. Ethiopia, like many countries in Africa, was both well-positioned and unprepared to respond to COVID-19. In the years prior, the country had invested heavily in its primary health care system and, because of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, its public health emergency response structures. But intensive care units across Ethiopia—and across the continent—were short on essential resources such as oxygen, personal protective equipment, and staff trained in critical care.
Gebremedhin is quick to add that COVID wasn’t the only difficulty she and her country faced during her four-year tenure as Minister. Civil conflicts and the ongoing impacts of climate change, including droughts, were displacing people, damaging health facilities, and causing additional infectious outbreaks across Ethiopia.
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