Dr. Mirta Roses, Director of the Pan American Health Organization, regional office for the Americas of the World Health Organization, said, “The sudden death of our leader, colleague and friend, is devastating. I share my sorrow with you all, with our present and past colleagues, WHO officials and staff all over the Region and the world, and I join with everyone in expressing our sincere and deepest sympathy to Dr. Lee's wife and son.” Dr. Roses, who is in Geneva for the World Health Assembly, ordered that flags be flown at half staff and that PAHO staff members in its Washington headquarters and its 27 country offices observe a moment of silence today in remembrance of Dr. Lee.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said. "The world has lost a great man today. LEE Jong-wook was a man of conviction and passion. He was a strong voice for the right of every man, woman and child to health prevention and care, and advocated on behalf of the very poorest people. He tackled the most difficult problems head on, while upholding the highest principles. He will be very gravely missed, but history will mark LEE Jong-wook's many contributions to public health."

Dr Lee, 61, a national of the Republic of Korea, was elected Director-General of WHO in 2003 for a five-year term. Until new elections are held, Dr. Anders Nordstrom, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for General Management, will serve as acting head of the Organization.

As Director-General, Dr. Lee led global efforts to tackle avian influenza and to prepare for a human influenza pandemic. Pointing to the health, social and economic devastation of historical influenza pandemics, he stressed repeatedly that every head of state should ensure their country developed a national pandemic preparation plan. He personally met with many heads of state, including US President George Bush, President Jacques Chirac, of France, and President Hu Jintao of China.

Prior to his work as Director-General, Dr Lee was a world leader in the fight against two of the greatest challenges to international health and development - tuberculosis and vaccine preventable diseases of children. Since his appointment as Director of the Stop TB Department in WHO in 2000 – and building on previous experience as head of the Global Program on Vaccines and Immunization – Dr Lee rapidly built what is internationally recognized as one of the most successful and dynamic global public-private partnerships for health; the Global Partnership to Stop TB. Credited by the Boston Globe as having brought the leadership and political skills needed to build consensus and ‘spur former antagonists to work together’, Dr Lee led the growth of a remarkable and complex coalition of more than 250 international partners that includes WHO Members States, donors, NGOs, industry and foundations.

Dr Lee’s work in tuberculosis control and vaccines demonstrated his personal strategic focus on health interventions to reduce poverty. In accelerating movement to reach the global immunization goals – including polio eradication – and hastening progress towards the global TB control targets, he led efforts which will make a substantial contribution to reaching the Millennium Development Goals. Shortly after his appointment to Stop TB, he launched the Global Drug Facility (GDF) - a new initiative to increase access to TB drugs, with substantial financial support from several multilateral agencies, governments and foundations, the GDF has already made a significant impact and is increasingly being viewed as a model for increasing access to drugs for other diseases of poverty, such as HIV/AIDS and malaria.

His commitment to action and focus on countries ensured that what counts is results – a feature that has been clearly evident from early in his career. As head of polio eradication initiatives in the Western Pacific from 1990 to 1994, he oversaw a reduction in reported polio cases from 5963 to 700 in the Region.

In 1994, Dr Lee moved to WHO headquarters in Geneva as Director of the WHO Global Program for Vaccines and Immunization (GPV) and Executive Secretary of the Children’s Vaccine Initiative – a global campaign to catalyze development of new and improved vaccines for children. He quickly established a reputation as a visionary leader and strong manager. Dubbed as WHO’s ‘Vaccine Czar’ by Scientific American magazine in 1997, he was responsible for a series of strategic developments in GPV. These included an open approach to working with industry, a review of the short-, mid- and long-term mission of GPV, an increase in funding from $15 million to nearly $70 million between 1994 and 1998, and management reforms to assure the highest technical competence of staff and increase the proportion of women in professional posts.

In 1998, having joined the newly formed cabinet as Senior Policy Adviser to the Director-General of WHO, he was closely involved in the WHO reform process, and maintained a strong commitment to supporting Members States by strengthening the regional and country structure of the Organization. As Special Representative of the Director-General, he was responsible for several crucial WHO initiatives, including those in the Horn of Africa and East Timor.

Dr Lee probably knew WHO better than most, having worked for more than 20 years in technical, managerial and policy positions at all levels in the Organization – country, region and headquarters. He began his WHO career in 1983 as a leprosy consultant in the South Pacific, and a year later was appointed team leader for leprosy control in the South Pacific. In 1986 he moved to the Western Pacific Regional Office in Manila, initially in the Regional Leprosy Control Program and later as Regional Adviser on Chronic Diseases.

Since Dr Lee took office as Director-General, the Organization has achieved some notable milestones in public health; ratifying the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (the first public health treaty negotiated by WHO); adopting a revised set of International Health Regulations; and leading the health response to avian influenza, the Asian tsunami, and the Pakistan earthquake.

The Director-General released several landmark publications with the aim of prompting a substantial response to some of the greatest health challenges facing the world, most notably the annual World Health Reports, which have focused on the AIDS treatment gap (2004); the appalling burden of suffering and death faced by pregnant women and children, with a call to 'make every mother and child count' (2005); and a commitment to address the health workforce crisis facing most developing countries (2006). The Report for 2007 takes the theme of health and security, emphasizing the central relationship between health, peace and human security.

A few days before his death, Dr Lee explained his vision of "universal access" to staff in his office as he worked on his speech to the World Health Assembly. He said: "There can be no 'comfort level' in the fight against HIV. We must keep up the pressure to get prevention, treatment and care linked and working. A key outcome of 3 by 5 was the commitment to universal access to treatment by 2010. But what does universal access mean? To me, this means that no one should die because they can't get drugs. It means that no one will miss being tested, diagnosed, treated and cared for because there aren't clinics."

He listened very well. He talked to the top decision-makers, but sought out everyday people to ask about their lives, as he traveled the world. In his quiet way, he would find a farmer, or a market stall holder, a nurse, or a schoolchild and learn about them. Their personal stories with their photographs were often the anchor for his public statements on global health policy.

Underscoring the recognition of his role, Dr LEE was invited by President Vladimir Putin to speak at the G8 Summit this July in St. Petersburg, where the fight against infectious disease is one of three major items on the agenda.

He took the fight against infectious diseases, and particularly the threat of pandemic influenza to a new level. He had a simple message: 'Prepare for a pandemic now, before it is too late." World leaders took it to heart and acted. Because of his conviction, the world is now better prepared for pandemic influenza than it has ever has been in history.

In his very first speech to WHO staff as Director-General, Dr Lee vowed that WHO would do the right things, in the right places. To him, the right places were the countries that most needed WHO's support. In his nearly three years as Director-General, Dr LEE traveled to more than 60 countries, to visit health programs and the people they affected, and to meet with the most senior leaders. He swiftly traveled to places where his leadership was urgently needed - to immediately assess the health needs following the Indian Ocean tsunami, the south Asian earthquake and in the Darfur region of Sudan, for example.

He considered WHO's job as one of huge responsibility to its 192 Member States, and the health needs of their people. He reformed WHO to help ensure it could meet those needs more effectively, with a strong focus on recruiting and retaining people with the right skills. He insisted on a rigorous financial strategy which reduced spending at Headquarters, and gave more to the countries where funding is most needed. This required tough decisions, but he did not hesitate to make them.

He preferred to lead by example, rather than instruction. He led a healthy life, and embraced life in Switzerland to its fullest. He loved skiing, mountain biking, and walking. He would pause at the office window and invite others to stand with him, reflecting on the beauty of the lakes, mountains and hills around him. During lunch hours at WHO, he would often take walks through the gardens, or a bike ride along the paths. He took great pleasure in sharing good food and wine. He also set an example across the United Nations, with strict rules against tobacco use, and the conversion of the fleet of WHO cars to small, environmentally-friendly fuel/electric vehicles.

Dr Lee had very wide-ranging intellectual interests, with a great appetite for knowledge and a hugely retentive memory. He often surprised people with his precise recall of a book or play that he was reading, or had read many years ago, and its application to a current situation. In spare moments he enjoyed classical music, the theatre, reading Shakespeare and other great literature. His mother tongue was Korean but he also spoke English, French and Japanese.

He will be very fondly remembered for his self-deprecating wit. He often used his quirky, unexpected humor either to put people at ease, to diffuse a difficult situation, or just to make his friends laugh with his astute observations.

Dr Lee was the first UN agency head from the Republic of Korea. He received his Medical Doctor (MD) degree from Seoul National University Medical School of Medicine, and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Hawaii School Of Public Health. Prior to joining WHO, Dr Lee worked for two years at the LBJ Tropical Medical Centre in American Samoa. Born in 1945, he is survived by his wife and son, two brothers and a sister and their families.

Condolences can be sent to DrLee-tribute@who.int

© 2006 HealthNewsDigest.com