28 May, 2017
WHO, whose job is to identify and fight disease outbreaks and chronic illnesses, elected its director general through a competitive election for the first time.
In the final round, Tedros received 133 votes to British candidate David Nabarro's 50, with two abstentions.
On Tuesday, May 23 and Wednesday, May 24, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, M.D. completed his participation in the 70 World Health Assembly by leading the USA delegation in meetings with public health officials from Singapore, the WHO Africa Regional Office, Finland, Norway, the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, and Brazil.
Chan, in a speech on Monday, urged ministers to tackle inequalities as a "guiding ethical principle".
On Tuesday afternoon, the WHA held the first ever election of a new Director-General that was open to all member states and elected Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia.
In 2001, Tedros was appointed as head of the Tigray Regional Health Bureau.
On a personal note, Tedros has worn different hats including that of Ethiopia's Foreign Affairs Minister (2012-2016) and Health Minister (2005-2012).
Dr Tedros has met President Kagame several times during important summit, including the Northern Corridor Integration Projects (NCIP) where he represented Hailemariam Desalegn, Ethiopian PM in 2015 in Kigali.
He also served as Chair of the Global Fund and of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership Board (RBM), where he secured "record funding" for the two organizations and created the Global Malaria Action Plan, which expanded RBM's reach beyond Africa to Asia and Latin America, according to the United Nations agency. "Countries should also work to improve collection of health data and make health strategies more accountable". Health officials from all over the world assembled at the closed-door election to cast their vote.
Following the death of PM Meles Zenawi, Dr. Tedros was appointed as Minister of foreign Affairs In November 2012, as part of Hailemariam Desalegn's new cabinet reshuffle.
The AU Commission affirms its support of Adhanom's priorities which include WHO reform; universal health coverage; health security; women, child and adolescent health; and the health impacts of climate and environmental change, said the statement. Nabarro, a WHO insider, has 40 years of experience in the worldwide public health domain.
Dr Tedros will begin his five-year term on July 1, succeeding Dr Margaret Chan, a Hong Kong native whose decade-long tenure was marred by the agency's fiercely criticised slow response to the Ebola epidemic in west Africa from 2013 to last year, which killed 11,300 people.
