African elected as WHO leader

Outgoing director-general of the World Health Organization, China’s Margaret Chan, gestures alongside the next director-general, Ethiopia’s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, after his election Tuesday in Geneva.

GENEVA — Margaret Chan, director-general of UN World Health Organization, will step down in July after 10 years of service, a period which has seen the public health sector achieve remarkable goals while tackling tough challenges.

At the opening of the 70 th session of the World Health Assembly on Monday, Chan said :“The world is better prepared but not nearly-well-enough.”

Chan, who launched a report on her time at the helm of the WHO, lauded the organization’s fight against health scourges such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and commended the way it has used its vast technical expertise to adapt to complex and protracted public health issues.

Figures show that the number

Margaret Chan, director-general of WHO

of people dying of HIV and malaria has been cut in half, and 49 million lives have been saved thanks to WHO’s effort to fight tuberculosis since 2000, with the number of child deaths dropping below 6 million for the first time in 2015.

Meanwhile, Africa, where viruses such as HIV, Ebola and Zika emerged, has its first chief of the UN health agency.

Tedros Adhanom, a former Ethiopian minister of health, was elected on Tuesday as the next WHO chief, becoming the first nonmedical doctor and the first African tapped to lead an influential agency that helps set health priorities worldwide.

Beijing extended warm congratulations to Adhanom on his election, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Wednesday.

China will support and work in a cooperative way with the WHO, he said.

Adhanom will become the eighth director-general of the agency founded in 1948, and the first elected in a competitive race before the full assembly. Previous chiefs were selected by the agency’s executive board.

In his victory speech, Adhanom said it was “challenging times for global health” but added that “all roads lead to universal health coverage”, calling it his central priority. He said only about half of the world’s population has access to healthcare “without impoverishment”.

“This election has been unprecedented in that it brought transparency to the organization, and even greater legitimacy to the director-general,” Adhanom said.

“I will exercise this legitimacy to bring the change and reform we need for this noble organization to re claim its trust from member states and from every citizen of the world.”

The world is better prepared but not nearly well enough.”