| ■ Bird-Flu Expert Is New WHO Director-General | 06.11.10 |
| A Chinese bird-flu expert has been chosen as the new director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO's executive board on Wednesday selected Dr. Margaret Chan from a field of five candidates. The post became vacant when former director-general Lee Jong-wook died in May. Chan is the first Chinese national to be appointed to such a high-ranking U.N. position, the Associated Press reported. She still has to be approved by a two-thirds majority at a special session Thursday of the 193-member World Health Assembly, which governs the WHO. In the past, the assembly has voted in favor of the WHO executive board's choices for director-general. Chan was appointed Hong Kong's director of public health in 1994 and had to deal with bird flu and SARS outbreaks there. In recent years, Chan has been the WHO's influenza pandemic chief and assistant director-general, the AP reported. |