Content area
Abstract
Critics of President Robert Mugabe say that WHO should withdraw from Zimbabwe. "Surely it should be moved to a country that better embodies the sort of diligence to health care that it and WHO are supposed to promote" declares Amir Attaran, professor of law and international population health at the University of Ottawa and London's Royal Institute of International Affairs. Sambo has no time for such demands. "WHO is not a political organisation", he says, his soft voice becoming more strident. "It is a technical organisation and we operate on the basis of the health and technical needs of member states and we do things according to our organisation's interests and mandate." He says his policy priorities will focus on tackling the unacceptably high burden of communicable diseases, notably HIV/AIDS, and maternal and child mortality. Southern African health activists hope his appointment may breathe new life into malaria control and prevention. "A measure of Sambo's success could be in the way in which he promotes methods of malaria control that are working, such as indoor residual spraying with insecticides, and in challenging the elements in WHO that oppose such methods", comments Richard Tren, director of the Johannesburg-based group, Africa Fighting Malaria.