Sania Nishtar still in the run as Hungarian scrapped from WHO top job list

GENEVA: Former Hungarian health minister Miklos Szocska has been cut from a list of candidates to head the World Health Organization, leaving just five in the running, the UN agency said Tuesday.

The five remaining candidates include Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom, who is backed by the African Union and is aiming to be the first African to hold the position.

The renowned malaria researcher and former health minister will face off against France's former health minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and former Pakistani health minister Sania Nishtar -- one of only two women on the list.

The other woman is Flavia Bustreo, who was proposed by Italy and is WHO's current Assistant Director-General for Family, Women's and Children's Health.

Another insider is David Nabarro, who has had a long UN career and is backed by his native Britain. Nabarro also took charge of WHO's Ebola response after the initial failures.

The finalists will campaign for several months before a one nation, one ballot vote among WHO's 194 member countries at the World Health Assembly in May.

Experts see the campaign to replace Margaret Chan as WHO chief as a crucial moment for the global health body, which has faced tough criticism in recent years, notably over its widely condemned response to the Ebola outbreak in west Africa.

WHO, which announced Szocska's elimination in a statement, said two more names will be cut Wednesday after a round of interviews with the executive board.

A final decision will be made in May before the Hong Kong-born Chan departs in June, after 11 years at the helm.

The senior fellow for health at the Council on Foreign Relations, Yanzhong Huang, told AFP in an email that WHO's long-term viability was at stake in the poll.

"The WHO cannot afford to have another governance failure similar to the 2014 Ebola crisis," he said.

The agency was accused of responding too slowly to the outbreak that killed more than 11,000 people and missing key warnings as to its severity.

"If WHO fails to right itself under new leadership, it will be further marginalised by other organisations in global health governance."