The World Health Organization was founded in April 1948 in Geneva, Switzerland and for the first time in it’s history, which has included fighting AIDS and other deadly infectious diseases, culminating in the eradication of Smallpox in the 1970s , it has taken the step of electing an African citizen to head the organization as Director General. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (who for campaign purposes used his first name) of Ethiopia won the election for the post after a campaign which involved half a dozen other candidates, including the runner-up Dr. David Nabarro from Great Britain, Tedros garnered roughly two-thirds of the final votes which took three rounds to complete with over 180 states casting votes in the election. This was also notable because this was the first W.H.O. election in which new rules which made voting a bigger deal than it had been previously, were implemented. Tedros, is replacing Dr. Margaret Chan who has been Director General for roughly a decade.
Tedros ran a campaign in which he emphasized what he was able to accomplish as Health Minister, which included declines in rates of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and infant mortality rates (from 123 deaths per 1000 births to 88 per 1000 births) within the five-year stretch from 2006 to 2011. Tedros also campaigned for better care for more vulnerable citizens regardless of national origins. Tedros also oversaw the advancement of thousands of Ethiopian women in health-related fields during his tenure. It is hopeful that Tedros will oversee the decline in more infectious diseases and that epidemics in cholera, malaria, tuberculosis, and other nasty killers will continue to become rarer under his tenure than under his predecessor Chan. However, his candidacy was not without controversy as his status as a member of the Tigray ethnic group brought on protests from Oromo and Amhara Ethiopians who accused him of complacent behavior during the most recent spike in human rights abuses inside the African nation.
