Dr Huong Thi Giang Tran is the first female Vietnamese
Doctor appointed as Director, Division of Health Promotion,
Disease Prevention and Control (DPC) at the WHO Regional
Office for the Western Pacific. Dr Tran has been the Director
General of the Department of International Cooperation of the
Ministry of Health of Viet Nam for 11 years. With more than
28 years working experiences for the health sector of Viet
Nam, she has led and managed international and Global
health programs across the health sector, mobilizing and
managing technical cooperation from development partners
and working on different public health programmes, especially
communicable disease control programmes and other public
health programmes. She was the Chair of ASEAN SOMHD
(Senior Officials Meeting on Health Development), Chair of
APEC Health Working Group, and alternate member of the
Executive Board of the World Health Assembly.
She obtained the qualification of a Medical Doctor, specialized
in pediatrics from Hanoi Medical University in Viet Nam in
1991, a Master of Public Health from the University of New
South Wales, Australia in 2000 and a Doctor of Philosophy in
Public Health from the National Institute of Hygiene and
Epidemiology, Viet Nam in 2008. She received the title of
Associate Professorship in 2016 and was appointed as a
Deputy Head of the Global Health Department of Hanoi
Medical University from 2015 - 2019.
From 2019 to 2025, as the Director of the Division of
Programmes for Disease Control (DDC), she oversees all the
disease control programmes at the WHO Regional Office,
including vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization,
Communicable Diseases, including TB, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis,
STIs, Malaria and Vector-borne diseases, Neglected Tropical
Diseases (NTDs), Noncommunicable Diseases Management
and Mental Health.
From January 2026, she is appointed as the Director of the
Division of Health promotion, Disease Prevention and control
(DPC). Her Division portfolio spans from health promotion and
policy, social determinants of health healthy settings,
Noncommunicable Diseases prevention and control, Mental
Health, Communicable Diseases control, Immunization,
maternal and child health. Under her leadership, the DDC and
now DPC have developed several Regional Strategic
Frameworks on Immunization, Reaching the Unreached,
Noncommunicable Diseases Prevention and Control and
Mental Health. Dr Tran has led her teams to provide strategic
leadership and technical expertise to support member states
to achieve the Regional vision: "Weaving health for families,
communities and societies in the Western Pacific".