[Obituary] Dr. Lee Jong-wook, director-general of the WHO

Lee Jong-wook, Director-general of WHO

(Hankyoreh/Yonhap)--Lee Jong-wook, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), has died. He was 61 years old.

Dr. Lee did not recover from an operation to remove a blood clot from his brain, according to a statement posted on the WHO web site.

"All of the staff of the WHO extend their most sincere condolences to Dr Lee's family. The sudden loss of our leader, colleague and friend, is devastating," the WHO said in the statement.

Dr. Lee was elected to head the United Nations health body’s top post in January 2003. He started his career in the U.N. in 1983 as an advisor on leprosy control in the South Pacific. Since 1994, Dr. Lee had worked at WHO headquarters in Geneva as a head of the agency’s global program for vaccines and immunization, after briefly serving as director of polio eradication in the Pacific region.

During his term as the head of the WHO’s global program for vaccines and immunization, Dr. Lee was praised for helping to cut the ratio of polio outbreak to less than one case per 10,000 people globally. He had focused on eradicating the outbreak of tuberculosis in 19 nations around the world, including North Korea, which he supplied with vaccines and drugs for 60,000 patients.

After being appointed as the director-general of the WHO, Dr. Lee poured his energy into the battle against outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in China and its neighboring regions, as well as the avian flu in Southeast Asia.

Dr. Lee also paid keen attention to the health of the North Korean people. During his final visit to South Korea in March last year, he pushed for the passage of a 20-billion-won (20 million USD) project to improve the health of infants in North Korea.

President Roh Moo-hyun said in a telegram, "Our people will remember Dr. Lee's life-long contribution to strengthening international health cooperation and improving the health of the world."

Along with his career at the WHO, Lee spent his life working for philanthropic medical causes. Before graduating from Seoul National University with his medical degree in 1976, he had worked with leprosy patients in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province. Lee met his wife, Reiko Karabuki, at a charitable event.

Lee is survived by his wife and son.