Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa Water & Sanitation & Hygiene Nov-Dec 2017 | Page 19

People
its most prestigious honour. Prior to his election as WHO
Director-General, Dr Tedros served as Ethiopia’s Minister
of Health and then Minister of Foreign Affairs. He has
also served as chair of the Board of the Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; as chair of the Roll
Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership Board, and as co-chair of
the Board of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and
Child Health.
Commenting on the appointment, Prof Piot said: “I
offer my warmest congratulations to Dr Tedros, and
Professor Peter Piot and Dr Tedros. Credit: LSHTM
the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
welcomes his appointment to this critical global health
role.
“As an alumnus and Honorary Fellow, Dr Tedros has
strong ties with our School, and we worked closely with
him during his time as Minister of Health of Ethiopia.
“Dr Tedros is an outstanding leader in public and
global health and the expertise he brings to the role will
be extremely valuable. His work to reform Ethiopia’s
health system and to ensure more people across Africa
have access to health coverage demonstrate his firm
commitment to reducing health inequalities.
“Events of recent years have shown us that now, more
than ever, we need a strong WHO in order to unite
countries and enable the international community to
deal with the biggest health challenges of our time. Dr
Tedros will play a critical role in ensuring the organisation
continues to strengthen health systems and improve
the way the world prepares for and responds to disease
epidemics, building on lessons learnt from the Ebola crisis
that devastated communities in West Africa.
WHO Member States elected Dr Tedros at the World
Health Assembly. He was one of three remaining
candidates for the role, alongside Dr Sania Nishtar
from Pakistan and Dr David Nabarro from the UK. Dr
Nabarro is also a School alumnus, completing a Master’s in
Community Health in Developing Countries in 1979, and
receiving an Honorary Fellowship in 1999.
Dr Tedros will begin his five-year term as WHO Director-
General on 1 July 2017.
Tanzanian heart specialist wins USD15, 000 for his
scholarly work: African Award
Dr Pedro Pallangyo, a specialist in heart diseases and
Head of research and
training at the Jakaya
Kikwete Cardiac
Institute (JKCI) has
won the Young African
Researchers Award, 2017.
He becomes the first
Tanzanian to have won
the award since 2014
when the programme
was initiated.
JKCI, a National
Specialized and
University Teaching
Dr Pedro Pallangyo
Hospital offering
cardiovascular care, training and research services, issued
the statement on Dr Pallangyo’s success on Tuesday 18th
July.
The statement said Dr Pallangyo has won
USD15,000(Tsh30million), a certificate and a trophy for
his outstanding scholarly work, including publishing 16
papers in various international journals.
Dr Pallangyo was awarded by the Egyptian Academy of
Scientific research and Technology. He is expected to
receive his award in August in Cairo at an event to be
officiated by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
In 2016, Dr. Christian Agyare, a Ghanaian and Senior
Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science of
Technology (KNUST) was selected as the winner of the
award, according to the Academy of Scientific Research
and Technology (ASRT), who are the initiators of the
awards.
“We look forward to working with the new Director-
General on his important mission to ensure the WHO
works effectively to improve the health of people around
the world.”
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