WHO News.

WHO News NewDirector-Generalnominated On 28 January WHO’s Executive Board nominated Dr Jong-Wook Lee for the post of Director-General of the Organization. Dr Lee, aged 57, has worked for WHO for 19 years in technical, managerial and policy positions. After heading the WHO Global Programme for Vaccines and Immunizations and serving as Senior Policy Adviser, he became, in 2000, Director of the Stop TB programme, a coalition of more than 250 international partners including WHO Member States, donors, nongovernmental organizations, industry and foundations. Dr Lee received his degree of Medical Doctor at Seoul National University, and a Master’s degree in Public Health at the University of Hawaii. He speaks English, Korean and Japanese, and reads French and Chinese. On Monday 27 January the 32-member Executive Board of WHO heard oral presentations from each of the applicants on their vision for the future of the Organization, and questioned them about their priorities. The following day the Board voted on the five short-listed candidates. Their nomination of Dr Lee will be submitted to the 56thWorldHealth Assembly, attended by representatives of WHO’s 192 Member States, at its meeting from 19 to 28 May. Dr Lee will succeed Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, who announced last August her decision not to stand for a second term. The new Director-General will take office and start his five-year term on 21 July 2003. Satellite-linked pre-election debate on the future of WHO On Sunday 19 January, a discussion forum took place at the International Conference Centre in Geneva to give candidates for the post of Director-General of WHO a chance to explain their views and plans to the public. The conference was organized by the Interactive Health Network and Exchange with the support of a large number health-related nongovernmental organizations as well as World Space, Direct Visual Communications, and Second Opinion software. Of the candidates, Dr Pascoal Mocumbi of Mozambique and Dr Ismael Sallam of Egypt attended in person, and Dr Joseph Williams of the Cook Islands attended by satellite link from Wellington, New Zealand. Unable to attend were Dr Karam Karam of Lebanon, Dr Julio Frenk of Mexico, Dr Peter Piot of Belgium, and Dr Jong Wook Lee of the Republic of Korea; Dr Coll-Seck of Senegal announced before the meeting that she had withdrawn her candidacy. Questions and comments were fielded by video link from Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Japan, South Africa, the UK and the USA, as well as from the audience of about 300 in the conference hall. The main topics covered were priorities and partnerships. Tobacco control: new text brings convention one step nearer The Brazilian Ambassador Luis Felipe de Seixas Correˆa, who chairs the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, issued a revised ‘‘Chair’s text’’ for the global treaty on 15 January. This will be discussed at the Negotiating Body’s sixth and final meeting, in Geneva from 17 to 28 February. During that meeting, delegations from WHO’s 192 Member States will negotiate a final text for adoption by the World Health Assembly in May. ‘‘The text I am proposing today is an attempt to take into account the views and suggestions expressed during the last round of negotiations,’’ de Seixas Correˆa said. ‘‘But primarily the aim of this text is to ensure that we end up with a treaty which is an effective tool for improving public health.’’ The text, consisting of a preamble and 38 articles, is available on-line at www.who.int/tobacco . It reflects agree- ment reached during the fifth round of negotiations, last October, on issues such as tobacco advertising and sponsorship, illicit trade in tobacco products, and taxes. In addition to the health sector, ministries of finance, trade and foreign affairs have been working together for a solution to this major public health problem, which caused 4.9 million deaths in 2002 and is expected to cause 10 million deaths a year by the late 2020s if the current trend is not altered. ‘‘I am confident we can craft a convention which both has muscle and can be accepted by all,’’ said Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, WHO’s Director-General. More countries get access to top health journals Forty-three middle-income countries now have affordable on-line access to 2200 top medical journals through the Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initia- tive (HINARI). The total value of the publication package is US$ 750 000, but hospitals, medical schools and research institutions in these countries will pay an annual fee of US$ 1000, beginning with a six-month free trial. The 69 low-income countries which are already members of HINARI receive these publications free. (Low-income countries are defined here as those with an annual per capita gross national product of less than US$ 1000, middle-income as those with US$ 1000–3000.) The 28 participating publishers will contribute the revenue collected from the new members of HINARI to a fund to train librarians and researchers to make the best use possible of the large amount of information now available to them. HINARI was set up by WHO and its publisher partners to support the health sector in developing countries by provid- ing access to the best available scientific information at affordable prices. It builds on recent developments in academic publishing and library services, especially the shift to electronic journal publishing. The initiative has evolved within Health InterNetwork, a WHO-led public–private partnership started by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as part of his Millennium Agenda to narrow the digital divide. n 154 Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2003, 81 (2)