Margaret Chan

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Margaret Chan (2007)

Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun ( Chinese  陳 馮富珍  /  陈 冯富珍 ; * 1947 in Hong Kong ) was Director General of the World Health Organization from 2006 to 2017 (in May 2012 she was elected for a second term until June 30, 2017). She was the first Chinese woman to head a UN specialized agency.

biography

Margaret Chan completed her medical studies at the Canadian University of Western Ontario from. After returning to Hong Kong, she joined the health authorities of what was then the British Crown Colony in 1978. From 1994 to 2003 she was the Director of Health in the Hong Kong Government. In this capacity, she was also responsible for the fight against H5N1 avian flu (1997) and SARS in 2003, the outbreak of which killed nearly 300 people in Hong Kong. She has been criticized by the public and parliament for her reluctance to fight SARS. On the other hand, an expert commission set up by the government came to the conclusion that the mismanagement could not be attributed to it.

In the same year she left her post to take a position at WHO as director of the department for the protection of the human environment. In 2005 she became director of WHO's Department for the surveillance and control of communicable diseases, and Deputy Director General in the field of influenza - pandemic .

She has been heavily criticized for agreeing to the 2009/10 swine flu, caused by the influenza A virus H1N1 , being classified as a pandemic, as the pandemic criteria for this virus were lowered. Members of the Council of Europe also criticized Chan, especially the German doctor and politician Wolfgang Wodarg (SPD), a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe . The WHO dismissed allegations of hasty action.

literature

Web links

Commons : Margaret Chan  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ WHO media release of May 23, 2012
  2. ↑ Maria Zheng: Missing in Hong Kong - elected by the WHO. TheEpochTimes, November 12, 2006, accessed May 30, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Miriam Shuchman: Improving Global Health - Margaret Chan at the WHO. New England Journal of Medicine, 356: 7: 653ff, February 15, 2007, accessed May 30, 2013 .
  4. ↑ Die Welt January 4, 2010
  5. ↑ Albrecht Meier: Council of Europe reprimands panic-mongering with swine flu. ZeitOnline, January 27, 2010, accessed May 30, 2013 .
  6. ↑ NZZ online December 29, 2009
personal data
SURNAME Chan, Margaret
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chan Fung Fu-chun, Margaret
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese politician (UN), Director General of the World Health Organization
DATE OF BIRTH 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Hong Kong