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 The reform firmly reshapes the Geneva-based U.N. health agency with
the manifesto of its Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, an
Ethiopian who is the first African in the job. He was elected in
2017 promising to focus on "universal health coverage" (UHC).
His back-to-basics approach won fervent support among health
ministers, partly reflecting the WHO's failure in 2014 to seize on
what became the world's worst Ebola outbreak, and the fact that many
of the 11,300 deaths in that outbreak would have been prevented by
better primary healthcare in West Africa.
Announcing the reforms, Tedros told WHO staff that UHC is the "WHO’s
top priority, and is central to everything we do".
The WHO has a five-year “triple billion” target, with one billion
more people benefiting from UHC, one billion more people better
protected from health emergencies, and one billion more people
enjoying better health and well-being.
Alongside this ambition to cast a huge global net, there will be a
new chief scientist role, reflecting the WHO's determination to be
ahead of the curve on frontier technologies such as gene editing,
and to ensure its member countries are first to benefit from
research and innovation.
A new chief of antimicrobial resistance will tackle what Tedros told
staff was "one of the most urgent health threats of our time".
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The agency will also focus more on "digital health", using text
messages to spread messages about vaccination and smartphone
applications to help people manage and monitor their health.
"We’re also working on software to monitor blood pressure using a
smartphone camera," said Takeshi Kasai, the WHO's Western Pacific
head.
Carissa Etienne, the agency's Americas chief, announced a new WHO
Academy based in Lyon, France, that she said would "revolutionize
health learning globally".
"Our vision is a state-of-the-art school to deliver high-quality,
multi-lingual learning, both on-line and in-person, alongside a
cutting-edge simulation center for health emergencies," she said.
The agency is developing business and financing plans for the
school, and building a network of partners including MIT, the
National University of Singapore and IMD in Lausanne, she said.
Over the past few years, the WHO's emergency response - reacting to
outbreaks of Ebola, Zika virus, measles, cholera and other diseases
- had changed the agency's image, Tedros said. He added that
emergency preparedness remained weaker than emergency response and
needed strengthening.
"Fighting fires is important. But preventing them is even better."
(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Frances Kerry)
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