New Leaders at Health Groups Will Set Global Agenda

New leaders at three of the most important global-health groups will help decide how governments and nonprofit organizations confront a range of health threats, from AIDS to avian flu, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The United Nations’ World Health Organization and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria are searching for a new director general and executive director, respectively, and the World Bank is looking for a new senior vice president to lead its health programs.

Given the importance of these positions, the selection process is under scrutiny, especially at the nonprofit Global Fund. An article in The Lancet, a British medical journal, last week criticized the fund’s decision not to make public the names of candidates. A Global Fund spokesman said the group’s board would consider the concerns raised in the article.

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