An official at Israel’s Health Ministry has been elected first vice chairman of the World Health Organization’s Executive. The position is said to be the highest United Nations post ever filled by an Israeli.
Pnina Herzog, the Health Ministry’s deputy director-general in charge of international relations, was elected at a WHO assembly meeting in Geneva last week. She will serve in the post for three years.
Herzog, a pharmacist by training and a longtime Health Ministry official, will serve on WHO’s program development committee.
WHO was established in 1948 to serve as the central agency directing international health-improvement efforts for the United Nations. It draws its representatives from six geographical regions. Israel is a member of WHO’s European region.
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