The Department of Health officially appointed Dr. Ekua Agyemang as the chief public health officer for Nunavut on February 17, 2026. This decision brings permanent leadership to medical services and illness prevention programs in Arviat, Nunavut.
Dr. Agyemang is a specialist in public health and preventive medicine who trained in Ghana and at the University of Alberta. She has already served as the acting officer in this role for 21 months and leads territory-wide efforts such as vaccination clinics, health advisories, and responses to local sickness outbreaks.
In Arviat, she has been a central figure in managing a tuberculosis outbreak that was first declared on February 11, 2025. Between January and August of 2025, the community recorded five active cases and 67 latent cases, which are cases where the bacteria is in the body but the person does not feel sick yet.
To help the community, Dr. Agyemang helped set up a screening clinic that tests residents using a one-step-at-a-time approach to find and treat the illness. Her permanent appointment provides a stable authority to lead local health clinics and the goal to eliminate tuberculosis across the territory by 2030.
