If the ex-health chief gets WHO job, he will join her
The former director of health, who is seeking the top job in the World Health Organisation, says her husband, who heads Hong Kong's eye hospital, will have to follow her to Geneva if she is elected.
Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun, the WHO's assistant director-general for communicable diseases, was nominated last month by China for the WHO director-general's post.
'My husband supports [my candidacy] and he is prepared to join me if that is required. It will be required,' Dr Chan said from Geneva yesterday.
She has taken leave from her WHO job and set up her campaign base at the Hong Kong Trade Office in the Swiss city. Her husband, David, an ophthalmologist, is chief executive of the Hong Kong Eye Hospital in Yau Ma Tei, the city's main eye referral centre under the Hospital Authority.
'Geneva is a wonderful place, a wonderful city. I have so far enjoyed my three years here, although it is lonely living alone,' she said.
Four other candidates have been officially nominated: Shigeru Omi of Japan, Julio Frenk of Mexico, Pekka Pushka of Finland and Kazem Behbehani of Kuwait.