The World Health Organization(WHO) has elected Matshidiso Moeti as the new director of its Africa office.
Moeti , a doctor from Botswana, was WHO's deputy director for Africa until she stepped down from the post in March.
The organization announced the decision to appoint Moeti after delegates from WHO's 47 African member countries voted by secret ballot for the regional director.
Moeti, who had also worked in Botswana's health ministry previously, will take over from Luis Gomes Sambo who has held the post since 2005.
She had said in her campaign brochure that one of her priorities was to develop a responsive and efficient WHO.
Moeti's efforts would be vital in preventing another outbreak of the virus.
"I hope, with all the control efforts that are now in place, the situation will have improved by the time I take office in February," Moeti told reporters, reports The Associated Press.
Moeti said that the health systems in hard-hit Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea have been ravaged and need to be rebuilt. In order to prevent future outbreaks, early warning and monitoring capabilities must also be enhanced, she added.
Last month, WHO had criticized its Africa office for not responding effectively to the Ebola outbreak. In an internal draft document, it said that many of its regional staff were political appointments. It also accused the staff of not helping outside experts to get visas to come to the West African countries.
Meanwhile, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said on Wednesday that the fight against Ebola was showing mixed progress as Ebola cases in Liberia were coming down where as in Sierra Leone the number was going up.
"There's some good news coming out of Liberia in terms of reduced number of cases, at least coming to the hospitals," Kim told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
"But then there is more concerning news coming out of Sierra Leone, where regions that were thought to be under control have now seen a surge in cases, and this is what we see with Ebola - we see drops and then we see surges," he said.
He added that a long term effort was required to completely eradicate the disease from the three West African countries and it required thousands of health workers. He also urged the international community to provide all necessary help to the health workers.
