Monday 3 May 2021

Congolese doctor and pastor, Denis Mukwege, appointed member of the WHO Scientific Council

Denis Mukwege, Congolese pastor and gynecologist, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his work with women victims of genital mutilation, has been appointed member of the WHO Scientific Council created in April 2021.

At the first meeting of the Scientific Council of the World Health Organization (WHO) organized to decide on the first steps of its program, the Pentecostal pastor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege was appointed member of the Council reports the media Congolese Politico. He thus becomes the first French-speaking African to be part of this organization.

According to the Central African News Agency, this structure created in April 2021 by the Director General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, will act as "spokesperson for scientific managers and absolutely advise the Director General of WHO on high priority scientific issues and advances in science and technology that could have a direct impact on global health”.

This Scientific Council will have, among other functions, "to assess urgent and high priority scientific questions", "to identify current and new scientific and technological problems which WHO must tackle", "to give direction strategic to WHO actions in the fields of science, research and innovation ”or“ to participate in the rapid and confidential review of WHO normative products”.

The WHO Scientific Council is made up of nine scientists from around the world who are "recruited and selected as recognized experts from around the world in the fields of basic sciences, translational and clinical research, social sciences, 'epidemiology and public health'.

Among these members, in addition to Dr Denis Mukwege, are Professor Harold Varmus, winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1989 and Professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, Dr Salim Abdool Karim, Director of the Center for the AIDS Research Program in South Africa, the Managing Director of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in the UK, Dr Edith Herard, Professor Adeeba Kamarulzaman, Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases in Malaysia, Dr Mary-Claire King, Professor of Genome Sciences from Washington in the United States, Professor Abla Mehio Sibai, Professor of Epidemiology at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, Dr Bill Pape, Director and Founder of Gheskio in Haiti as well as Dr Yongyuth Yuthavong, specializing in genetic engineering in Thailand.

Source (Christian Info)