China's Chan named to become WHO chief

China's Chan named to become WHO chief 

By Laura MacInnis

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday nominated China's Margaret Chan, its top official on bird flu, to lead the U.N. agency as it seeks to prevent a flu pandemic and fight global scourges such as AIDS. 

Chan, 59, will become the first person from China to head a major United Nations body if her selection as director-general is approved on Thursday by the World Health Assembly, the 193-state WHO's top decision-taking body. 

The assembly has never rejected a candidate recommended by the 34-member executive board, which chose the former head of Hong Kong's health department over contenders from Mexico, Japan, Spain and Kuwait. 

"I am deeply honoured by the vote of confidence," Chan told the board following the ballot. 

With Beijing campaigning hard, Chan had been the front-runner to replace South Korea's Lee Jong-wook, who died suddenly in May from a blood clot on the brain. 

She stepped aside as WHO assistant director-general for communicable diseases to campaign for the position, considered the most senior job in global health. 

The profile of the WHO -- which has a two-year budget of $3.3 billion -- has risen dramatically with the spread of global health emergencies such as AIDS, and the emergence of new threats from bird flu and the respiratory illness SARS. 

Beijing's decision to put Chan forward for the post was seen by diplomats as a further sign that China, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, was interested in playing a wider international role. 

STRENGTHEN RELATIONS 

Supporters had argued her election could also strengthen relations between the WHO and China, which has been accused of being slow to share information on emergent health threats. 

Following her nomination, China's Health Minister Gao Qiang pledged closer cooperation with the United Nations agency. 

"China's government will strengthen cooperation with all the member states of the WHO to contribute to a better public health," he told the board, speaking through an interpreter. 

Chan overcame Mexico's Health Minister Julio Frenk, WHO official Shigeru Omi of Japan, Spain's Health Minister Elena Salgado and another WHO official, Kuwait's Kazem Behbehani, to win the nomination. Diplomats said the final ballot came down to Chan and Frenk. 

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt praised her selection, calling Chan "a strong leader with a proven record on managing health programs." 

During her nine years heading Hong Kong's health department, Chan won praise for helping douse a bird flu outbreak in 1997. But she also drew criticism for not getting faster information from mainland China, where the scourge began. 

She later battled another new disease, SARS, which spread from Asia into other parts of the world in 2002 and 2003. 

As head of the WHO, a position she can hold for two five-year terms, Chan will confront thorny issues such as how to improve poor-country access to essential drugs while protecting the patents demanded by big pharmaceutical companies. 

During her campaign, Chan said that she intended to focus on fighting chronic diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis if she became the agency's leader.

She graduated from the University of Western Ontario, and majored in Medicine at university.