World health: A lethal dose of US politics (WHO)

BANGKOK - When World Health Organization (WHO) director general Lee Jong-wook died of a cerebral hemorrhage last month before the start of the United Nations agency's annual World Health Assembly, the world's most prominent public-health official was arguably of a conflicted mind.

The WHO veteran was caught in the middle of an intensifying global debate over how to reconcile intellectual-property protection with the pressing public-health need to expand access to expensive life-saving medicines, a hot-button issue that has sharply divided WHO member states along developed- and developing-country lines.

An Asia Times Online investigation reveals that at the time of his death, Lee, a South Korean national, had closely aligned himself with the US government and by association US corporate
interests, often to the detriment of the WHO's most vital commitments and positions, including its current drive to promote the production and marketing of affordable generic antiretroviral drugs for millions of poor infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which can cause AIDS.

According to senior and middle-ranking WHO officials familiar with the situation, Lee blatantly bent to US government pressure in March when he made the controversial decision to recall the WHO country representative to Thailand, William Aldis, who had served less than 16 months in what traditionally has been a four-year or longer posting.
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WHO at the crossroads
Lee's unexpected death has already engendered some serious soul-searching inside the WHO. Lee was widely lauded after his death, but his final legacy to the organization he served for 23 years is very much in doubt.

The Bush administration's tactics, often cloaked as reform measures, in reality aim to bring UN agencies like the WHO more in line with US commercial and political interests.

At the WHO, at least, that process has come at the expense of the UN agency's stated mission, commitments and, perhaps most significant, its global credibility as an impartial and apolitical actor.

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/HF17Ae01.html

Should be interesting to see what develops now as far as picking new leader at WHO - that would be the UN. Wonder how much real clout the US has at the UN, with Bolton in there, and other countries liking us so much.