Canada's Chief Public Health Officer expresses sadness over the passing of WHO Director General Dr. J-W Lee

The global health community has suffered a tremendous loss with the passing of WHO Director-General Dr. J-W Lee on May 22nd. The Director-general position is a challenging one and Dr. Lee brought a steady hand to the many difficult issues we face in global public health.

Dr. Lee was devoted to improving the health of people around the world. He was a good friend of public health, the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada and we have been honoured to work on many joint initiatives, including our collaboration on pandemic preparedness and the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health.

Many of us will miss him professionally and personally, particularly our staff who are working at or have had the opportunity to work at the WHO. His friendly manner anchored by principles, integrity and talent is one that we can all learn from.

On behalf of all the staff at the Public Health Agency, I extend my sincere condolences to Dr. Lee's family and the staff of the World Health Organization.