WHO Director-General Tedros unopposed for second term

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus continues to serve as the top medical official. During the next five years, he will lead the UN health body, Associated Press has learned.

The World Health Organization’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is running unopposed for a second five-year term. The first African to head the UN health body, has overseen its complex response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has overshadowed his tenure.

The Ethiopian trained in biology and infectious diseases, he got a doctorate in community health. Actually, he is also the first WHO boss who is not a medical doctor. During the vote, three African countries – Botswana, Kenya and Rwanda – backed Dr Tedros.

The UN health agency made the announcement after the deadline for candidacies for the next term expired last month and Dr Tedros’s name was proposed by 28 countries, more than half of these were European.

The 56-year-old official has been a leading voice urging wealthy countries with large coronavirus vaccine stockpiles, together with the big pharma corps, to do more to improve access to the shots in the third countries. Dr Tedros has also called for a moratorium on booster shots so that more doses could be made available quicker to poorer countries.