{"id":2397,"date":"2017-05-22T09:28:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-22T08:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world-heart-federation.org\/news\/address-by-dr-margaret-chan-at-the-70th-world-health-assembly-22-may\/"},"modified":"2022-09-05T18:23:28","modified_gmt":"2022-09-05T16:23:28","slug":"address-by-dr-margaret-chan-at-the-70th-world-health-assembly-22-may","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/world-heart-federation.org\/news\/address-by-dr-margaret-chan-at-the-70th-world-health-assembly-22-may\/","title":{"rendered":"Address by Dr Margaret Chan at the 70th World Health Assembly, 22 May"},"content":{"rendered":"

In her final address to the World Health Assembly\u00a0as Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Margaret Chan\u00a0addressed the importance of engaging all partners\u00a0to the future of public health.<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

In a powerful speech in which she reflected on developments in public health over the past decade, Dr Chan also refuted claims that the WHO had lost its relevance, saying \u201cthe facts tell a different story\u201d.<\/p>\n

She highlighted WHO’s convening power, its culture of \u201cevidence-based learning\u201d, and its success in helping to reduce the price of generic medicines, despite the \u201ccontentiousness\u201d of this issue.<\/p>\n

She also addressed the huge challenges faced by WHO during her administration, including the global financial crisis and outbreaks of Ebola and Zika. Stating that the Ebola virus had taken \u201ceveryone by surprise\u201d, she nevertheless acknowledged that WHO were too slow to realize the new challenges presented by 2014’s outbreak.<\/p>\n

Dr Chan has held the position of Director-General of WHO for eleven years, having been appointed to the post in November 2006. The new Director-General – who will be elected at the World Health Assembly this week – will take up their new role at the beginning of July.<\/p>\n

NCDs a \u201cshift in public health\u201d<\/h2>\n

Dr Chan emphasized the paradigm shift that has taken place in public health resulting from the rise of chronic non-communicable diseases such as CVD<\/a>. She called for a move away from curing diseases towards prevention, saying \u201cno country on this planet can treat their way out of all the diseases that are affecting our people\u201d.<\/p>\n

She underlined the importance of civil society, whom she described as \u201csociety’s conscience\u201d, and stated that tackling tobacco, alcohol and childhood obesity should be public health priorities.<\/p>\n

Dr Chan concluded her address with some advice for the Health Assembly: to continue to reduce inequalities, ensure accountability, to listen to civil society and most importantly, to never forget that \u201cbehind every number is a person\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In her final address to the World Health Assembly\u00a0as Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Margaret Chan\u00a0addressed the importance of engaging all partners\u00a0to the future of public health. In a powerful speech in which she reflected on developments in public health over the past decade, Dr Chan also refuted claims that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2398,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"event":[],"project-campaign":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-2397","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAddress by Dr Margaret Chan at the 70th World Health Assembly, 22 May - World Heart Federation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world-heart-federation.org\/news\/address-by-dr-margaret-chan-at-the-70th-world-health-assembly-22-may\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Address by Dr Margaret Chan at the 70th World Health Assembly, 22 May\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In her final address to the World Health Assembly\u00a0as Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Margaret Chan\u00a0addressed the importance of engaging all partners\u00a0to the future of public health.   In a powerful speech in which she reflected on developments in public health over the past decade, Dr Chan also refuted claims that the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/world-heart-federation.org\/news\/address-by-dr-margaret-chan-at-the-70th-world-health-assembly-22-may\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World Heart Federation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-05T16:23:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/world-heart-federation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Director-general.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/world-heart-federation.org\/news\/address-by-dr-margaret-chan-at-the-70th-world-health-assembly-22-may\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/world-heart-federation.org\/news\/address-by-dr-margaret-chan-at-the-70th-world-health-assembly-22-may\/\",\"name\":\"Address by Dr Margaret Chan at the 70th World Health Assembly, 22 May - 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