Diabetes Unit at WHO Geneva
The WHO Diabetes Unit is based at Headquarters within the Department of Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion, which is headed by Dr Robert Beaglehole. This department encompasses the surveillance, prevention and management of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, cancers and diabetes.
The Diabetes Unit works closely with the International Diabetes Federation, and with over 25 collaborating centres throughout the world. In addition, much of our work within the organization is in collaboration with colleagues in other departments. All these partnerships add considerable value and impact to our work.
The current WHO Diabetes Unit consist of:
Claire Duchesne, Secretarial Assistant
Claire has been working for WHO since 2000 as a bilingual (French and English) secretarial assistant. Her duties include a range of administrative tasks, document dispatch and maintenance of the web site.
Sameera Suri, Communications Officer
Sameera is a student of Psychology with a particular interest in health in the developing world. She has been working as a Communications Officer at WHO for the past four years, working on various health topics including human genetics and tobacco control. Her interest lies in the public understanding of health sciences and the impact such knowledge has on health behaviours. In her role as a Communications Officer, she has been involved in the development of various print and online publications currently in use by the Organization, the most recent example being the Genomic Resource Centre- an online resource on human genetics and genomics.
Gojka Roglic, Technical Officer
Gojka is a medical doctor who trained in clinical diabetology and epidemiology. Having worked in her native Croatia during the 1991-1995 war, she has experience in the management and public health aspects of diabetes in disasters. She joined the World Health Organization in 1999 and her main responsibilities are global numerical estimates of diabetes prevalence, complications and mortality.
Nigel Unwin, Medical Officer
Nigel is a medical doctor who trained in epidemiology and public health. Prior to joining the World Health Organization in October 2003 he worked for 10 years with the Diabetes Unit at the University of Newcastle, UK. He has collaborated on diabetes related work in Cameroon, Tanzania and several other low and middle income countries. His main responsibility at WHO is the overall coordination of the joint WHO-IDF programme, Diabetes Action Now.
For further information please email us at diabetes@who.int