Chinese Premier promises support to new WHO chief

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met with Margaret Chan, the newly-elected World Health Organization chief, in Beijing on Tuesday, vowing to continue to support the WHO in promoting public health works.

Wen congratulated Chan on her successful election as director-general of the WHO.

Wen said the government attached great importance to public health works and regarded the development of China's health standards as a priority on the government agenda.

The government had established a nationwide disease prevention and control system and a public healthcare system for emergency public health incidents, Wen said.

These ensured disease information was reported in a timely, open and transparent way, which helped the control of many serious contagious diseases.

The government was willing to work with the WHO in disease prevention and control, information exchanges and public health development to cement cooperation, Wen added.

Chan said she would improve communication among WHO members and try her utmost to promote global public health work.

Chan, former health chief of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, was elected unopposed as the next WHO director-general on Nov. 9.

She received 150 votes in support, well over the two-thirds majority needed at a special session of the agency's governing World Health Assembly in Geneva.

Chan, 59, joined the WHO in 2003 and has since been the agency's top official for pandemic influenza, as well as the assistant director-general for communicable diseases. She is expected to take office in January for a five-year term.

Source: Xinhua