Michael J. Ryan (doctor) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Michael Ryan
Ryan speaking at ESCAIDE 2019 in Stockholm, Sweden
Deputy Director General of World Health Organization
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 April 2024
Director-General	Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Personal details
Born	Michael Joseph Ryan 1965 (age 59–60) Sligo, Ireland
Education	NUI Galway University College Dublin Health Protection Agency
Occupation	Doctor and Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme (WHO)

Michael Joseph Ryan (born 1965) is an Irish doctor who specializes in studying and stopping the spread of diseases. He used to be a surgeon. He is currently the leader of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Health Emergencies Programme. This means he helps guide the global efforts to control and treat serious diseases like COVID-19.

Dr. Ryan has held important roles and worked directly in the field during many disease outbreaks. He has helped fight diseases such as cholera, Ebola, measles, meningitis, and SARS. His work helps protect people around the world from dangerous illnesses.

Early Life and Education

Michael "Mike" Ryan grew up in Charlestown, a town in County Mayo, Ireland. His family is from a place called Curry, near Tubbercurry in County Sligo.

He studied medicine at the National University of Ireland in Galway. After that, he trained in orthopaedics (bone and muscle surgery) in Scotland. Mike Ryan also earned a special degree in Public Health from University College Dublin in 1992. He then got more training in how to control diseases and protect public health in London.

Career in Public Health

Starting His Career

In 1990, Mike Ryan moved to Iraq with his girlfriend, who later became his wife. They went there to train Iraqi doctors. However, soon after they arrived, the Invasion of Kuwait happened. This meant they had to work as doctors while being held captive.

During this time, Mike Ryan was in a car accident caused by a military convoy. He was badly injured and could no longer work as a surgeon. This led him to change his focus to public health and infectious diseases. He later worked with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help stop infectious diseases in Africa.

Working at the WHO

In 1996, Ryan joined the World Health Organization (WHO). He worked in a new team that focused on epidemics, which are large outbreaks of disease. He helped create guidelines for how to respond to measles outbreaks. He also worked on a program to get rid of polio.

From 2000 to 2003, Ryan was in charge of responding to epidemics at the WHO. In 2001, he led a team of experts in Uganda to control an Ebola outbreak. He worked in dangerous areas, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where aid workers sometimes faced attacks. In 2003, he also helped manage the response to the SARS outbreak.

Between 2005 and 2011, Ryan was the Director of Global Alert and Response Operations for the WHO. He helped create systems for the WHO to manage health emergencies. He also worked on rules called the International Health Regulations (IHR), which help countries work together to stop diseases from spreading across borders.

In 2011, Ryan left the WHO for a while. He went to work on the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan. He rejoined the WHO in 2017.

He has been a key person in many Ebola outbreaks in Africa. From 2014 to 2015, he was a senior advisor for the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response in West Africa. He worked directly in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

From 2017 to 2019, Ryan was an Assistant Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response in the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme. In 2019, he helped create a report about how prepared the world was for global health crises.

In 2019, Mike Ryan became the Executive Director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme. In this role, he often appears in press conferences about the COVID-19 pandemic. He explains how to fight the virus and find a vaccine. Based on his experience with Ebola, he has said that while things like social distancing and lockdowns can slow COVID-19, stopping it completely needs strong public health actions. These include finding sick people, tracing who they have been in contact with, and isolating those who are ill.

Since 2022, Ryan has been leading a special panel for the World Bank and WHO's Pandemic Fund. This fund helps countries prepare for future pandemics. He also teaches about international health at University College Dublin.

Other Activities

• He is a non-voting member of the board for the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which helps develop vaccines.
• He is a founding member of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), a group that helps respond to disease outbreaks.

Recognition

On January 5, 2022, the Irish President Michael D. Higgins gave Mike Ryan an award. This award recognized his "enormous service to global public health" over many years.

Personal Life

Mike Ryan met his wife, Máire Connolly, in medical school in Galway in 1988. They got married in 1997. Máire is also a doctor and an expert in infectious diseases. She has also worked at the World Health Organization. She is now a professor at National University of Ireland Galway. They have three children.

Ryan lives in Geneva, Switzerland, where the WHO is based.

Images for kids

• 

  Ryan speaking at ESCAIDE 2019 in Stockholm, Sweden