Ethiopia's Tedros to be next leader of UN health agency
GENEVA (AP) — Africa, where deadly viruses such as HIV, Ebola and Zika emerged, has its first chief of the U.N. health agency.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a former Ethiopian minister of health, was elected today as the next director-general of the World Health Organization, becoming the first nonmedical doctor and the first African tapped to lead an influential agency that helps set health priorities worldwide.
Health ministers and other senior envoys to WHO's annual World Health Assembly elected Tedros over Dr. David Nabarro of Britain, a U.N. veteran, in a third and final round of voting. Tedros received 133 votes to Nabarro's 50, with two abstentions. The third candidate, Pakistan's Dr. Sania Nishtar, was eliminated in the first round of voting.
Tedros will become the eighth director-general of the U.N. agency founded in 1948, and the first elected in a competitive race before the full assembly. Previous WHO chiefs were selected by the agency's executive board, and the assembly's approval was essentially a rubber stamp.
In his victory speech, Tedros noted it was "challenging times for global health" but added that "all roads lead to universal health coverage," calling it his central priority. He said only about half of the world's population has access to health care "without impoverishment."
"This election has been unprecedented in that it brought transparency to the organization, and even greater legitimacy to the director-general," Tedros said. "I will exercise this legitimacy to bring the change and reform we need for this noble organization to reclaim its trust from member states and from every citizen of the world."