Dr Margaret Chan Nominated to be WHO Director-General

Dr Margaret Chan Nominated to be WHO Director-General

November 09, 2006

    GENEVA, Nov. 9 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Dr Margaret Chan
of China was nominated today by the Executive Board of the
World Health Organization for the post of Director-General.
 The Director-General is WHO's chief technical and
administrative officer. 

    (Logo: 
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040610/CNTH001LOGO )

    The nomination will be submitted to the World Health
Assembly, which will meet for a one-day special session on
Thursday, 9 November to appoint the next Director-General.

    The procedures for the current nomination and election
process were decided following the sudden death of Dr LEE
Jong-wook, WHO Director-General, on 22 May 2006.  At its
meeting on 23 May, the WHO Executive Board agreed on an
"accelerated process" for electing a
Director-General. 

    On Monday the Executive Board selected a short list of
five candidates. Yesterday the Board interviewed the five
candidates and today selected Dr Chan as its nominee. 

    Dr Chan is a well-known public figure because of her
record of leadership in fighting disease first in Hong
Kong, and more recently at WHO.  During her nine-year
tenure as Director of Health, Dr Chan confronted the first
human outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza in 1997 and
successfully defeated Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
(SARS) in Hong Kong in 2003.  She also introduced primary
health care `from the diaper to the grave' with a focus on
health promotion and disease prevention, self-care and
healthy lifestyles.  In 2003, she joined WHO and rose to
the position of Representative of the Director-General for
Pandemic Influenza as well as Assistant Director-General
for Communicable Diseases.  Now 59, Dr Chan obtained her
Medical Degree from the University of Western Ontario in
Canada and a public health degree from the National
University of Singapore.

    The WHO Executive Board is composed of 34 Members who
are technically qualified in the field of health.  The main
functions of the Board are to give effect to the decisions
and policies of the World Health Assembly, to advise it and
generally to facilitate its work.

    The countries represented on the current Executive
Board are: Afghanistan, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain,
Bhutan, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Denmark, Djibouti, El
Salvador, Iraq, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Lesotho,
Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Luxembourg, Madagascar,
Mali, Mexico, Namibia, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda,
Singapore, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Tonga, Thailand, Turkey and
the United States of America.

    Dr Anders Nordstrom, appointed by the Executive Board
as Acting Director-General of WHO in May, will continue in
this role until a new Director-General takes office.

    For further information, please contact: 

     Christine McNab, Acting Director, 
     WHO Communications Department
     Tel:    [phone]
     Mobile: [phone]
     Email:  [e-mail]

     Iain Simpson, Team leader, 
     News and Advocacy
     Tel:    [phone]
     Mobile: [phone]
     Email:  [e-mail]

     Fadela Chaib, 
     WHO Communications officer
     Tel:    [phone]
     Mobile: [phone]
     Email:  [e-mail]

     All WHO Press Releases, Fact Sheets and Features as
well as other information on this subject can be obtained
on Internet on the WHO home page: http://www.who.int .

SOURCE  World Health Organization