Candidates announced for WHO health boss

LONDON: Six international health experts, including four from Europe, are to compete to become the next director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) after its current leader Margaret Chan ends her tenure next June.

Nominations for the position, announced yesterday, include Britain’s David Nabarro – who was the UN’s special envoy for Ebola during the crisis in 2014/15 – and Ethiopia’s foreign minister and former health minister, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Also nominated are Sania Nishtar, a former minister in Pakistan’s government; the French former health minister Philippe Douste-Blazy; Italy’s Flavia Bustreo – currently an assistant director-general at the WHO; and a former health minister of Hungary, Miklós Szócska.

The WHO describes the director-general’s position as a “chief technical and administrative officer” who oversees the agency’s international health work.