Quotes by Margaret Chan

About Margaret Chan:

Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun is the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). Chan was elected by the Executive Board of WHO on 8 November 2006, and was endorsed in a special meeting of the World Health Assembly on the following day. Chan has previously served as Director of Health in the Hong Kong Government (1994–2003), representative of the WHO Director-General for Pandemic Influenza and WHO Assistant Director-General for Communicable Diseases (2003–2006). As of 2014, she is ranked as the 30th most powerful woman in the world according to Forbes.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

The World Health Organization did a world health report in 2006. In the whole world about 60 countries are in dire situation in terms of having enough doctors. And many of these countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa. You know, that part of the world al...

Margaret Chan

After all it really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic.

Margaret Chan

The international community should treat this as a window of opportunity to ramp up preparedness and response.

Margaret Chan

Influenza pandemics must be taken seriously, precisely because of their capacity to spread rapidly to every country in the world.

Margaret Chan

All countries should immediately now activate their pandemic preparedness plans. Countries should remain on high alert for unusual outbreaks of influenza-like illness and severe pneumonia.

Margaret Chan

Based on assessment of all available information and following several expert consultations, I have decided to raise the current level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 4 to phase 5.

Margaret Chan

We cannot think of the old days when we were dealing with SARS. It's a totally different ballgame now.

Margaret Chan

For a pandemic of moderate severity, this is one of our greatest challenges: helping people to understand when they do not need to worry, and when they do need to seek urgent care.

Margaret Chan

Some experts say we are moving back to the pre-antibiotic era. No. This will be a post-antibiotic era. In terms of new replacement antibiotics, the pipeline is virtually dry. A post-antibiotic era means, in effect, an end to modern medicine as we kno...

Margaret Chan

I have a reputation for being a straight-talker.

Margaret Chan

New and emerging infections keep coming back and the world needs a collective defense system, and that requires international cooperation and collaboration, in the name of global solidarity.

Margaret Chan

Doctors and nurses, with their training and their experiences, they would be able to detect unusual patterns of disease. That's why we say it is important for every country to have a proper surveillance system. The function of the surveillance system...

Margaret Chan

Antimicrobial resistance is on the rise in Europe and elsewhere in the world. We are losing our first-line antimicrobials. Replacement treatments are more costly, more toxic, need much longer durations of treatment, and may require treatment in inten...

Margaret Chan

Mexico is a safe, as well as a beautiful and warmly gracious, place to visit.

Margaret Chan

When you're dealing with new and emerging diseases, you have no idea and you can't predict in advance what would happen.

Margaret Chan

The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, and the related Accra Agenda for Action, are useful policy instruments that set out the mutual responsibilities of donors and recipient countries.

Margaret Chan

If the country has invested in the training of doctors or nurses or midwives for that matter, people are beginning to say, 'Should we not ask them to serve a number of years in the country who invested in their training?' I think this is now coming t...

Margaret Chan

Many diseases including malaria, dengue, meningitis - just a few examples - these are what we call climate-sensitive diseases, because such climate dimensions for rainfall, humidity and temperature would influence the epidemics, the outbreaks, either...

Margaret Chan

HIV AIDS is a disease with stigma. And we have learned with experience, not just with HIV AIDS but with other diseases, countries for many reasons are sometimes hesitant to admit they have a problem.

Margaret Chan

This change to a higher phase of alert is a signal to governments, to ministries of health and other ministries, to the pharmaceutical industry and the business community that certain actions now should be undertaken with increased urgency and at an ...

Margaret Chan

Author Bio

  • NameMargaret Chan
  • DescriptionDirector-General of the World Health Organization
  • AliasesChan Fung Fu-chun
  • Born1947
  • CountryPeople's Republic Of China
  • ProfessionPhysician; Civil Servant; Politician
  • AwardsOfficer Of The Order Of The British Empire