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.
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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.
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 .