WHO: Tedros of Ethiopia elected as new Director General yesterday

For the first time ever, an African, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Gheybreysus of Ethiopia, has emerged as the new Director General of the apex health body, the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Despite protests on Monday against his candidature at the opening ceremony of the ongoing 70th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland, Dr. Tedros was elected WHO’s boss yesterday (Tuesday), in the first election conducted under new, more open and democratic rules.

After nearly two years of public campaigning, originally by six candidates, the election itself took place in a closed-door session in which the health ministers of 194 of the world’s countries cast their ballots in secret.


Tedros — who campaigned under his first name — ultimately, beat Dr. David Nabarro, the British candidate, after two rounds of voting by winning 121 votes.
Dr. Sania Nishtar, a Pakistani cardiologist and expert in non-communicable diseases, was eliminated after a first round with 38 votes.
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn appointed Tedros as Minister of Foreign Affairs, in November 2012. In January 2016 the Twenty-Sixth Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union endorsed his candidature for the next election of the DG of the WHO as a sole African candidate.

Tedros, 52, was best known for having drastically cut deaths from malaria, Human Immunol-deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), tuberculosis and neonatal problems when he was Ethiopia’s health minister. He trained 40,000 female health workers, hired outbreak investigators, improved the national laboratory, organized an ambulance system and multiplied medical school graduates tenfold.

He promised to pursue health insurance in even the poorest nations. Nabarro, 67, was best known for leading the campaigns of various United Nations agencies against avian and swine flu, Ebola, malaria, hunger and other crises.