The Associated Press
Thursday, November 9, 2006; 12:08 PM
GENEVA -- Bird flu and SARS battler Margaret Chan was elected Thursday to head the World Health Organization, the highest U.N. post ever won by a Chinese national, and she immediately pledged to give highest priority to the health of women and Africans.
"I will work with you tirelessly to make this world a healthier place," Chan told the agency's governing World Health Assembly, which is made up of the U.N. agency's 193 member countries.
She said he would give attention to reducing the burden of diseases, improving health systems and other health issues, but she said what she most cared about is women and Africans.
"I want us to be judged by the impact we have on the health of the people of Africa and the health of women," Chang said. "The health of the people of Africa must therefore be the key indicator of the performance of WHO."
Chan, a 59-year-old Hong Kong native, assumes office Jan. 4 to head the agency that has grown increasingly important as the world has stepped up efforts to battle polio, tuberculosis, malaria, AIDS and emerging threats that could prove deadly for people around the globe.
With her challengers falling by the wayside in the selection process, Chan was elected by the full assembly without opposition with 150 votes in favor, well over the two-thirds majority needed at a special session, delegates inside the closed door meeting said. Chan will fill the post vacated by the death in May of Dr. Lee Jong-wook. Her five and a half-year term will last until the June 2012.
Chan gained international renown when she led Hong Kong's public health department at a time it faced the world's first known human outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus in 1997. Her swift reaction, ordering the slaughter of the province's entire poultry population _ about 1.5 million birds in just three days _ was applauded and is said to have prevented a major human health crisis.
Chan also received international credit for her role in containing the outbreak in Hong Kong of SARS _ severe acute respiratory syndrome _ which killed several hundred people in 2003.
The assembly completed the selection process begun by the agency's executive board, which nominated Chan on Wednesday from a shortlist of five candidates.
Chan's election underscores China's interest in playing a bigger role in global affairs.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry's top official in Hong Kong said Thursday that the nation "used our sincerity to ask the Third World and developed countries for support," but that the campaign hadn't gone beyond that to "any kind of political transactions."
The official, Lu Xinhua, dismissed any link between China's pledge four days ago to double aid to African and the election of Chan.
"Our assistance to African countries is a selfless contribution. We earned from our friends the genuine friendship there," Lu said.
Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged on Nov. 4 to double Chinese aid to Africa between 2006 and 2009. He promised $3 billion in loans, $2 billion in export credits and a $5 billion fund to encourage Chinese investment in Africa.
As the WHO director-general's representative for pandemic influenza starting in 2005, she helped countries prepare for a possible outbreak should the bird flu virus mutate into a strain easily transmitted among humans. She also was assistant director-general for communicable diseases, leading WHO's efforts to fight tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, polio and other global scourges.
With the increase in global health threats, the leadership of the agency, which has a two-year budget of $3.3 billion, is seen as increasingly important.
The other candidates on the shortlist were Dr. Julio Frenk, Mexico's health minister, Dr. Shigeru Omi, a Japanese national who heads WHO's operations in Asia, Spanish Health Minister Elena Salgado Mendez and Kazem Behbehani, a senior WHO official from Kuwait.
