Tran Thi Giang Huong, a Vietnamese physician and Director of the WHO Division of Disease Control in the Western Pacific, has been nominated as the next Regional Director for the 2024-2029 tenure.

Doctor Tran Thi Giang Huong. Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Huong is the first Vietnamese candidate for the post of World Health Organization Regional Director for the Western Pacific. She will compete with four other candidates from China, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and Tonga.

Associate Professor Dr. Tran Thi Giang Huong is a public health specialist with 32 years of professional experience. She has held many important positions in Vietnam, Southeast Asia and WHO.

She's been director of the Department of International Cooperation under the Vietnamese Ministry of Health, head of the ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting on Health Development (SOMHD), head of the APEC Working Group, and a member of the WHO Standing Committee from 2016 to 2019.

Since July 2019, Huong has been in charge of the Division of Programs for Disease Control in the Western Pacific.

She has authored important and effective measures in the development of health care for the Vietnamese people, and accelerated the global integration of Vietnam’s health sector.

As Director of the WHO Division of Programs for Disease Control in the Western Pacific, Huong has made great efforts to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, prevent infectious diseases, improve mental health, eliminate malaria and other tropical diseases for the sub-Mekong region, and introduce large-scale vaccination.

The next WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific will be elected at the 74th session of the Regional Committee, to be held in Manila, the Philippines, from 16-20 October.