London | When former Ethiopian health and foreign minister Tedros Adhanom was elected to run the World Health Organisation for five years in 2017, it was a moment for him to savour. He’d won more than 70 per cent of the vote against a British rival, and become the first director general from a poor country in almost half a century.

“People have talked about a lack of diversity at the Oscars. Well, it’s always been like that at the top of global health too – so Dr Tedros is the Denzel Washington of global health,” says Osman Dar, an expert adviser at Public Health England and the think tank Chatham House.