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Health chief Agwunobi is nominated for federal post

A pediatrician, John Agwunobi has headed Florida's Health Department for nearly four years.

TALLAHASSEE - Florida Health Secretary John Agwunobi was nominated by President Bush on Thursday to be assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

A pediatrician, Agwunobi was named by Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, to be Florida's health secretary in October 2001. A harried first two weeks on the job began the next day, when he received a report that anthrax had been detected in a tabloid photo editor in Palm Beach County who would die the following day.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, a process that may take months, Agwunobi, 40, will be returning to Washington, where he previously was vice president of medical affairs at the Hospital for Sick Children.

While heading Florida's Health Department, Agwunobi has dealt with a number of disease outbreaks, including a rash of cyclospora cases and an E. coli bacteria outbreak that investigators traced to animals at petting zoos, both this year.

He has also had to deal with scandal. An inspector general's report found that the agency had no record of having referred some disciplinary cases to prosecutors when there was a suspicion of criminality, despite a law passed in 1992 requiring that. Agwunobi ordered agency officials to begin trolling through files to turn them over to prosecutors.

Before becoming health secretary, Agwunobi was the state agency's deputy for children's medical services.

Health Department spokeswoman Lindsay Hodges said Agwunobi was "deeply honored and humbled" by the president's nomination.

[Last modified July 1, 2005, 01:23:13]