Tedros Adhanom: Ethiopian in the eye of coronavirus storm
Imogen Foulkes
What a challenge to be the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the time of the coronavirus.
The entire planet hanging on your every word, addressing daily press conferences at the headquarters in Geneva to detail an ever increasing number of cases in an ever increasing number of countries.
This is the lot of Ethiopian Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the first African head of the WHO, who took office two-and-a-half years ago promising to reform the organisation, and to tackle the illnesses that kill millions each year: Malaria, Measles, Childhood Pneumonia and HIV/Aids.
And yet, while the WHO is undoubtedly working hard on those illnesses, Dr Tedros’ time in office has been dominated first by Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and now by Covid-19.
Both have been declared Public Health Emergencies of International Concern, or PHEICs.
Charming and unassuming
That means they require 24-hour monitoring, deployment of medical staff, equipment and medicines, daily discussions with affected countries and countries who might be affected, and of course, a steady stream of reliable information for an anxious world desperate for immediate answers.
“Charming” and “unassuming” are some of the words those who know him use to describe the 55-year-old.
At his first press conference as WHO director general, the Geneva-based journalists were somewhat bemused by his manner.
He strolled in smiling, sat down and chatted in a very relaxed way, his voice sometimes so quiet it was difficult to hear him. That was a very big change from his more formal predecessor, Margaret Chan.
And yet behind that quiet manner there must lie a very determined man. Before becoming head of the WHO he climbed through the ranks of Ethiopia’s government, becoming health minister and then foreign minister. He could not have risen that far by being self-effacing.
Brother died
Dr Tedros was born in 1965 in Asmara, which became Eritrea’s capital after independence from Ethiopia in 1991, and grew up in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
One formative, and now motivating experience, was the death of a younger brother, who was around four years old at the time, he told Time magazine in November. Later, as a student, Dr Tedros came to suspect it was measles that killed him.
“I didn’t accept it; I don’t accept it even now,” he was quoted as saying, adding that it was unfair that a child should die from a preventable disease just because he was born in the wrong place.
“All roads should lead to universal health coverage. I will not rest until we have met this,” he told the World Health Assembly shortly before his election as WHO chief.
Dr Tedros became a member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which was in the vanguard of the 1991 overthrow of Ethiopia’s Marxist dictator, Mengistu Haile Mariam.
As a government minister from 2005, he was seen as more approachable and friendly than some of his more austere TPLF comrades.
He has been praised for reforming the health sector and improving access to health care in Ethiopia, Africa’s most populous state after Nigeria.
But when he was in charge, his ministry was known to discourage journalists from reporting about suspected cholera cases in the country.
During his highly efficient and ultimately successful campaign to lead the WHO, Dr Tedros’ supporters dismissed allegations that he had covered up cholera outbreaks.
That is why “persuasive” and “political” are also words which crop up regularly when discussing his leadership of the WHO.
He knows that the WHO’s success tackling global health crises depends on the co-operation of the organization’s 194 member States.
During the current Ebola outbreak in DR Congo, he has travelled there several times, not just to see the situation but to also talk to government leaders. And he moved quickly to visit Beijing when news of the coronavirus outbreak emerged.
“His strategy is to coax China to transparency and international co-operation rather than criticising the government,” says Lawrence Gostin, Professor of Global Health Law at Georgetown University. —BBC
