WHO chief Lee dies after blood clot surgery

By Richard Waddington

GENEVA (Reuters) – World Health Organization chief Lee Jong-wook of South Korea died on Monday two days after suffering a blood clot on the brain, the United Nations agency said.

Lee, 61, was spearheading the organization’s fight against global threats from bird flu, AIDS and other infectious diseases. WHO director-general since 2003, Lee was his country’s top international official.

"I am sorry to tell you that Dr. Lee Jong-wook, director-general of the WHO, died this morning," Spanish Health Minister Elena Salgado, who was chairing the session, told the opening meeting of the agency’s annual assembly.

Her voice trembling, Salgado described Lee as an "exceptional person and an exceptional director-general."

United Nations’ Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Lee’s death "devastating" and noted his deep commitment to fighting scourges such as AIDS and malaria and preparing the world for a possible bird flu pandemic.

"Not only was he valuable leader to WHO staff the world over, but a cherished colleague and friend to me personally," Annan said in a statement.

Work at the annual assembly, which runs until Saturday, was briefly suspended. Flags at the U.N.’s European headquarters, where the assembly was being held, flew at half mast.

Lee’s deputy, Anders Nordstrom of Sweden, takes over as acting head of the Geneva-based organization until a new director-general is appointed.

Unless the procedure is speeded up, Lee’s successor will be nominated by the WHO’s executive board in January and approved at the next annual assembly in May 2007.

Lee underwent emergency surgery at the Cantonal Hospital of Geneva to remove a blood clot on his brain after he took became suddenly on Saturday afternoon. He never regained consciousness.

NO WARNING

The affable South Korean, who liked to lighten his press conferences with jokes, was a keen sportsman with no history of ill-health, officials said.

"There was no warning, no nothing. It was a complete shock," said Iain Simpson, a WHO spokesman.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, who travelled to six countries in southeast Asia with Lee last year, praised the director-general for offering the WHO "visionary leadership and a cooperative spirit."

Lee’s WHO career began in 1983 as an adviser on leprosy to its West Pacific office. An expert on vaccination, he won recognition for his work in the fight against polio, helping lower the global rate of contraction to less than one in 10,000 of world population.

In 2000, Lee became director of STOP TB, a coalition of more than 250 global partners including WHO member states, donors, non-governmental organizations and private foundations.

He was elected to the top job in world health in January 2003 and took office in July as the WHO was beginning to win its battle against SARS — Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome — the highly contagious respiratory disease which killed hundreds of people around the globe after spreading from China.

Soon thereafter, the world was facing an even greater threat than SARS in the shape of bird flu, which experts fear could trigger a global epidemic in which millions may perish.

Pandemic preparedness is high on the agenda of the annual assembly, which will also debate whether or not to destroy the world’s remaining stocks of smallpox as well as Taiwan’s long-standing bid to win observership.

Lee is survived by his wife Reiko and a son.

(Additional reporting by Laura MacInnis)