Nathan Kapata

I am an infectious diseases expert with more than 20 years of experience in public health, infectious diseases surveillance, research and medicine. I have worked at all levels of care of the public sector in Zambia and have served as advisor at various national and international levels including the World Health Organization, WHO Public Health Emergency Operations Centre Network (EOC-NET), Stop TB Partnership, Africa CDC Southern Africa Regional Collaborating Centre (RCC), Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the Pan-African Network for Rapid Research, Response, Relief and Preparedness for Infectious Diseases Epidemics (PANDORA-ID-NET); thus I have participated in influencing national, regional and international policies and strategies in the respective disciplines. Currently, I am the cluster lead for emergency preparedness and response, and Director of the public health emergency operations centre at the Zambia National Public Health Institute, where I lead the technical coordination of emergency preparedness, prevention, response and recovery to public health emergencies including but not limited to Ebola Virus Disease, Cholera, COVID-19 and other emerging and re-emerging diseases. I am also the lead of the International Health Regulations (IHR) National Focal Point (NFP) and coordinate the multisectoral team of experts in a one health approach through the IHR Technical Working Group. Additionally, I led the process of strengthening national public health security in the country and facilitated the technical process that culminated in the enactment of the first legal instrument for national public health security in Zambia. Previously, I coordinated disease surveillance and control; antimicrobial resistance; research activities; TB and TB/HIV control programmes as well as neglected tropical diseases in Zambia; was instrumental in facilitating the strengthening of the national health research agenda leading to the enactment of the legal instrument for national health research. I have mentored health professionals in public health and research and authored more than 120 scientific articles as first and co-author on TB, HIV/AIDS, cholera, COVID-19, genomics, emerging and re-emerging disease, health systems and others. I was part of the team that established the first HIV/AIDS treatment centre and youth friendly reproductive health services at Lewanika General Hospital in Zambia's Western Province; successfully managed Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS/ STI programmes at provincial and national levels leading to improvements in case detection rates, treatment outcomes and health sector response to manage TB and HIV.