BMJ  2003;327 (30 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7413.0-f

Editor's choice

Champions and betrayers of public health

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The World Health Organization has spent much of this year in limbo waiting for its new director general to take office. Even so it has managed three surprises. Gro Harlem Brundtland's decision to decline a second term was followed by the unexpected election of Jong-Wook Lee when all eyes were on an African succession. And WHO's quick and determined response to SARS was almost as unpredictable as the outbreak itself.

Lee took charge in July and immediately introduced a team of management consultants. Brundtland may have raised WHO's profile and its credibility, but she didn't do enough for staff morale or for relations between headquarters and the regions. Many felt downtrodden and disillusioned by incessant change. Brundtland began with goodwill from within and without, and Lee was close enough to the regime—as head of WHO's Stop TB programme— to see Brundtland's weaknesses and witness how that internal support withered.

Lee, . . . [Full text of this article]

(kabbasi@bmj.com)

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