COPENHAGEN, September 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Zsuzsanna Jakab has been nominated as the new WHO Regional Director for Europe by the WHO European Region's governing body in Copenhagen. Mrs Jakab, the first representative of Hungary to lead a WHO region, is currently Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. She was one of five candidates for the post.

Mrs Jakab is scheduled to take up her new post on 1 February 2010, succeeding Dr Marc Danzon, who has served as the Regional Director for Europe for the past 10 years.

In her address to delegates at the Committee, Mrs Jakab pledged to move the health agenda forward within WHO and bring the Region of 53 Member States together. "I am looking forward to working with every single state in the Region. I will do everything I can to make sure the WHO Regional Office for Europe remains a strong centre with a leading role in both health policy and public health, which works in full partnership in Europe as well as of course with the EU but also globally, for the benefit of the whole Region and WHO." She stressed her commitment to strengthen the collaboration with WHO headquarters under the leadership of Dr Margaret Chan.

Mrs Jakab was appointed Director of the European Union (EU) European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in March 2005. Before joining ECDC, she was Secretary of State in Hungary's Ministry of Health.

Before joining the Hungarian Government, she worked at the WHO Regional Office for Europe in Denmark for 11 years when she held several posts, including Coordinator, Division of Information, Evidence and Communication; Director, Country Health Development; and Coordinator, Policy and Country programme, and EUROHEALTH programme.

Born in 1951 in Hungary, Mrs Jakab holds a Master's degree from Eotvos Lorand University of Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Budapest, a postgraduate university degree from the University of Political Sciences, Budapest, a diploma of the two foundation courses in public health at the Nordic School of Public Health, Gothenburg, Sweden, and a postgraduate diploma from the National Institute of Public Administration and Management.

SOURCE World Health Organisation (WHO)