Bangladesh
Saima Wazed Saima Wazed taking over as WHO Regional Director today
Dhaka, Feb 1: Today (Thursday), global mental health expert Saima Wazed is taking over as Regional Director (RD) of the World Health Organization (WHO) for South-East Asia for the next five years.
On January 1, at the 76th session of the WHO Regional Committee for the South-East Asia region, the member countries nominated Saima Wazed for this position.
According to WHO sources, her nomination was approved at the 154th session of the WHO Executive Board held on January 22-27 in Geneva, Switzerland. Saima Wazed replaces the outgoing WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia, Dr Poonam Kshetrapal Singh.
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), India, Indonesia, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste participated in the polling in New Delhi. Prominent autism expert Wazed got eight votes. The other candidate, Nepal nominated Dr. Shambhu Prasad Acharya, got two votes.
Saima Wazed is the daughter of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and a mental health specialist. She gained worldwide fame for his role in Autism. She is the Adviser on Mental Health to the Director-General of WHO. Saima Wazed is the first Bangladeshi to hold the post created in 1948 as part of WHO's regional division.
