Nov 8 (Reuters) - Margaret Chan, Hong Kong's former health chief and latterly the top World Health Organisation official on flu pandemics, was nominated on Wednesday to be WHO director general. Here are some key facts about her: -- Chan, a 59-year-old medical doctor, was proposed by China and stepped aside from her job as the WHO's top official on bird flu and pandemic influenza to campaign hard for the top job. She joined the WHO in 2003. -- During nine years as director of Hong Kong's department of health, she won some praise for helping fight the world's first outbreak of bird flu in 1997, ordering the cull of about 1.5 million poultry. -- But she was also criticised, particularly for an alleged failure to get speedy information from mainland China, where the disease began. -- She also battled another new disease, SARS, a potentially fatal respiratory infection that spread from Asia into other parts of the world in 2002-2003. -- Chan said during her campaign that if she won she would focus on fighting chronic diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis. -- "No other international or national agency can get to an outbreak scene within 24 hours or marshal such technical expertise so fast," she said in her campaign. "I will not be partial towards China ... I am serving the world's interests."
