David Nabarro, British physician who led UN response to Ebola and COVID-19, dies

David Nabarro, World Health Organisation Special Envoy for Covid-19 Prevention and Response, poses after he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George during an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London, Friday March 3, 2023. (Victoria Jones/Pool via AP, file)

GENEVA — Dr. David Nabarro, a British physician who led the UN response to some of the biggest health crises in recent years, including bird flu, Ebola and the coronavirus pandemic, has died. He was 75.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, confirmed Nabarro’s death on social media platform X.

“David was a great champion of global health and health equity, and a wise, generous mentor to countless individuals,” Tedros wrote Saturday. “His work touched and impacted so many lives across the world.”

King Charles III knighted Nabarro in 2023 for his contributions to global health after he served as one of six special envoys to the WHO on COVID-19. He won the 2018 World Food Prize for his work on health and hunger issues.

He also was a candidate for the top job at the WHO in 2017 but lost out to Tedros in the final round of voting. Nabarro left the UN later that year.

In 2003, Nabarro survived a bombing at the UN headquarters in Baghdad that killed 22 people, including the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the time, and wounded dozens more.

Nabarro, then one of the WHO’s senior directors, was in a meeting when “suddenly there was this extraordinary thud,” he told reporters during an emotional news conference days later in Geneva, still carrying his blood-spattered notebook.

“We found some first aid kits, got bandages and turned people onto their sides. We were working like in a cloud, in this fog of moaning and crying,” he recalled.

The 4SD Foundation, a social enterprise in Switzerland where Nabarro served as strategic director, said he died Friday in a “sudden passing.”

“David’s generosity and unwavering commitment to improve the lives of others will be sorely missed,” it said.

Thuy Maryen, Nabarro’s longtime friend and the foundation’s former communications director, said he was 75 and died at his home in Ferney-Voltaire, France, a suburb of Geneva.

The foundation is focused on mentoring the next generation of leaders in global sustainable development.

Survivors include his wife, Flo, as well as his five children and seven grandchildren.