Keiji Fukuda is an American physician with expertise in influenza epidemiology. In March 2009, Fukuda was appointed Assistant Director-General for Health, Security and Environment ad interim for the World Health Organization (WHO), and he held this position from September 2010 to November 2016. The media have referred to him as the WHO "flu chief" during the 2009 swine flu outbreak. Fukuda came to the WHO in 2005. He first worked as Coordinator of the Global Influenza Program from 2006 to 2008 and was then appointed its Director. Before joining the WHO in 2005, Fukuda was Chief of the Epidemiology Unit, Influenza Branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After retiring from the WHO in 2016, he joined the University of Hong Kong as a Professor.
