World Health Organization bids adieu to Hans Hogerzeil – The dynamic Director of Essential Medicines and Pharmaceutical Policies

Sir, On May 31, 2011, Hans Hogerzeil, Director of Essential Medicines and Pharmaceutical Policies, World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva, received a touching sendoff from the staff and colleagues of WHO, an agency which he had served for 26 years. Hans received his medical degree from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, and spent his early years as a doctor in India, working in a leprosy mission hospital, and later in a hospital in Ghana, Africa. Hans joined the WHO’s Regional Offi ce for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO) in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1985 and worked with Prof. Ranjit Roy Chaudhury for a few years. Later, he joined the WHO Action Programme on Essential Drugs at the WHO headquarters in Geneva and went on to become the Director of Essential Medicines and Pharmaceutical Policies. Hans played a vital role in building on and strengthening the edifi ce built by stalwarts of the essential drugs movement, like Mahler, Lauridsen and Helling-Borda. Hans is well known in India for his book “A guide to good prescribing”, which has been translated into many languages, and its sister publication, “A teacher’s guide to good prescribing”.