Dr. Hanan Balkhy

Dr. Hanan Balkhy was appointed World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean by the WHO Executive Board in January 2024. She took office on February 12024. Dr. Balkhy has set five priorities for her tenure as Regional Director: to make health care more accessible to all, especially hard-to-reach populations; to expand country capacities to tackle emergency health demands of the climate crisis, pandemics, conflicts and other disasters; to strengthen public health for disease prevention and health promotion; to expand partnerships for financing, to share knowledge and skills; and to strengthen the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean and country office capacities and subsequently boost cooperation to better influence global health. Dr. Balkhy was previously Assistant Director-General for Antimicrobial Resistance at WHO headquarters. Prior to that, she was Executive Director for Infection Prevention and Control at the Ministry of National Guard, Saudi Arabia. She led the Gulf Cooperation Council Centre for Infection Control and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Infection Prevention and Control and Antimicrobial Resistance inSaudi Arabia. Dr. Balkhy earned her medical degree from King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. She then completed her pediatric residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, United States of America (USA). She later completed a pediatric infectious diseases fellowship with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Case Western Reserve University, USA.