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Leading the troops at the World Health Organization has never been an easy job. Now 58-year-old Dr. Lee Jong-wook wants to make it a dirty one, too. On July 21 Lee will replace former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem as director-general of the world's foremost health institution. The former leprosy doctor from South Korea has an ambitious agenda: more field work and less bureaucracy, which may not sit so well with the international technocrats back at WHO headquarters in Geneva--especially since he wants to move more manpower out into the field to needy countries and give them a larger share of the budget. Lee spoke to NEWSWEEK's Alexandra A. Seno before taking command. Excerpts:
How is the WHO coping these days?
The organization is better off in terms of financial health [and] international reputation. This was demonstrated during the SARS epidemic and with the international convention on tobacco control, where 40 countries signed [on]. I'd like to do more for HIV/AIDS, with 27 million infected people in the African continent, in China, in India, throughout Asia. I'd like to send more human and financial resources to the countries. We should not be seen as the bureaucratic organization. We should be seen as an organization where we dirty our hands in the field.
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Will you lobby for more money?
Of course, but not for WHO. This money should be available either as a direct contribution by the rich world to the poor countries though [a] bank, through the WHO, through a fund or U.N. aid.
What are some top priorities of your term?
I'd like to put 3 million people on anti-retroviral treatment in two years' time. And I'd like to achieve polio eradication during my tenure.
Will we be seeing more cases, like the new anti-malaria bed-nets program, where the WHO meshes private- and public-sector cooperation?
Yes, we hope. We have many [such] arrangements in the organization. For example, developing new diagnostic tools, finding new TB drugs, a malaria vaccine. These can only be done through private-public, rich country-poor country partnerships.
How are you going to get the developed world interested in helping?
It's better for them to deal with it in the developing countries. If you look at how many people are arriving from the four corners of the world in Los Angeles or New York or Washington airport[s] every day, you really see that this is a small world.
Some predict a return of SARS. Others disagree. Which way are you betting?
It's not betting. I don't know. It's very important to find out the epidemiology of SARS. We need a more specific and sensitive diagnostic tool to tell the difference between the common cold and SARS. In winter, if many are coughing and have fever, there will be big confusion.
What did your childhood in preindustrial South Korea teach you?
I was very young in the middle of the Korean War. I still remember walking 400 kilometers from Seoul to the southern tip of the peninsula with my mother and my family. It took us 60 days. When I think of the refugee issues in the world, I know what it means. It is not something that I only read about. I saw many of the donations coming from the United States and other countries. Sometimes they were so unsuitable and irrelevant--like high-heeled shoes. We have to think carefully about what is needed and what is not.
Korea is now developed.
Yes, it is. And I am the first Korean head of a U.N. agency. So they are very proud. I must live up to their expectations.
Recently you called for higher cigarette prices in South Korea. If it were up to you, how much would a pack of cigarettes be?
The higher, the better.
Have you ever smoked?
If I am honest, I think I smoked once when I was 7 or 8 with my younger brother. In the garden in Korea.
The WHO has new powers designed to deal with bioterrorism threats.
I hope that we will never have a chance to use [them]. If, in the future, there are any man-made diseases and there is an outbreak, we have to issue some travel guidelines like we issued at the time of SARS. If we have to challenge some countries, I will not hesitate for one second. It is an issue of the health security of the world.
Why did you decide to become a doctor?
My mother urged me to. She felt that being a doctor, in time of war, in time of peace, it's [always dependable]. It was practical advice. It was not to save the world. Also, I thought it was a very good way to impress the girls.
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