[Ip-health] Wall Street Journal: Candidates From China, Japan Top Shortlist for WHO Director

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116282988858814513.html

Candidates From China, Japan
Top Shortlist for WHO Director
By BETSY MCKAY
November 7, 2006; Page A4

GENEVA -- The World Health Organization chose five finalists to fill
its top post, led by two experts in emerging infectious diseases and
Mexico's health minister, an advocate for providing health coverage to
the poor.

The choices reflect growing interest in having WHO assert more
leadership in some of the world's biggest public-health challenges,
including the battle against pandemic flu and improving health-care
delivery in developing countries.

The shortlist for director-general emerged from five rounds of voting
by the United Nations health agency's 34-member executive board. The
board will vote again tomorrow to pick the new director-general.

Margaret Chan, WHO's top communicable-diseases official and a former
Hong Kong health director, got more votes in every round of balloting
yesterday than any of the other 10 candidates, according to people
close to the executive board. Shigeru Omi of Japan, WHO regional
director for the western Pacific, consistently placed second, followed
by Julio Frenk of Mexico.

Drs. Chan and Omi have been on leave from their WHO posts while
pursuing the agency's top job, to succeed South Korea's Lee Jong Wook,
who died in May.

Also still in the running for one of the world's most powerful
public-health posts were Kazem Behbehani, a Kuwaiti who is a top WHO
external-relations official, and Elena Salgado, Spain's health
minister. Both those selections were seen as surprising and may reflect
the international politics and horse-trading that goes on behind closed
doors during the election process. Ms. Salgado is admired for her
strong managerial skill, but had little health-related experience
before becoming health minister in 2004.

Among those who had been considered strong candidates but didn't make
the cut yesterday were Pascoal Manuel Mocumbi, a former prime minister
of Mozambique, and Pekka Puska, director-general of Finland's National
Public Health Institute and a noted expert in interventions to lower
chronic-disease rates. The candidates receiving the fewest votes in
each round by the WHO executive board were eliminated from further
consideration.

The five remaining candidates will be interviewed by the board today.
They are expected to face tough questions about how they would forge a
global strategy for health threats such as AIDS, pandemic flu,
tuberculosis and heart disease.

Drs. Chan and Omi have been leading contenders, partly because of their
experience in the battle against severe acute respiratory syndrome, or
SARS, and the earliest outbreaks of avian flu. Dr. Chan also stands out
because she was nominated by China, where SARS first erupted and which
has been slow at times to disclose health threats. China's support of
Dr. Chan is seen as unusual because the five permanent-member countries
of the U.N.'s Security Council traditionally haven't backed candidates
for the job, though no rule prevents them from doing so.

Support for Dr. Frenk, Mexico's health minister since 2000, suggests
that his candidacy hasn't been hurt by a deal made two years ago with
some tobacco companies to help fund health overhauls in Mexico. Under
the program he launched, 22 million of Mexico's poorest citizens are
expected to receive health-insurance coverage by the end of this year.

Write to Betsy McKay at betsy.mckay@wsj.com

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
CPTech
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