The new boss of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has renewed the agency's warning that the world must keep up its guard against bird flu.
Dr Margaret Chan holds the most prominent United Nations post ever filled by a Chinese national. Dr Chan said there had been a lull in bird flu infections in recent months, but that cases had begun picking up again in the last few weeks.
"This H5N1 (virus strain) is causing unprecedented damage to the poultry sector, and along the way many people were infected, and more than half of these people died," Dr Chan said.
"We must not let our guard down. We must maintain our vigilance." She said the world was gearing up to improve surveillance of the disease and rapid response to any outbreaks.
More also needed to be done against older diseases, such as malaria, Mr Chan said. "We are taking a new look at how to deal with this very tenacious killer," Mr Chan said.
"We have the tools, but we need to understand why we are not making progress."
Some 3,000 children in Africa die from the disease every day, she said. The agency has in the past been criticised for its inconsistent advice regarding malaria control, resulting in an increase in cases.
The WHO also intends to press on with its campaign to eradicate polio, even though it missed its original target of eradicating the disease worldwide by 2000.
Dr Chan is likely to be rated on how well she can get the Chinese government to co-operate with global efforts to contain infectious diseases like bird flu.
China has been criticised for dragging its feet in reporting outbreaks to WHO and supplying virus samples to the global health community for analysis.
She said she remained the best qualified person to obtain Chinese co-operation, but she declined to say when she expected her efforts to bring results.
Dr Chan, a 59-year-old from Hong Kong, defeated a field of 12 other candidates to become director-general in a vote by WHO member countries in November. Her term will run until June 30th 2012. The agency has a two-year budget of $3.3 billion.