Halfdan T. Mahler

Halfdan Theodor Mahler (21 April 1923 – 14 December 2016) was a Danish physician. He served three terms as Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) from 1973 to 1988, and is widely known for his effort to combat tuberculosis and his role in having shaped the landmark Alma Ata Declaration that defined the Health for All by the Year 2000 strategy.

Biography Mahler was born in Vivild, Denmark, in 1923, the last of seven children. Eschewing a career as a preacher, Mahler studied medicine at the University of Copenhagen (1948).

In 1951, Mahler joined the World Health Organization (WHO) and spent almost ten years in India as Senior WHO Officer attached to the National Tuberculosis Programme. From 1962, he was Chief of the Tuberculosis Unit at the WHO Headquarters in Geneva until 1969, when he was appointed Director, Project Systems Analysis. From the late 1960s, under Mahler's lead, the WHO projects related to the development of "basic health services" were increased; these projects were the institutional predecessors of the primary health care programs that would later appear. He is buried at the Cimetière des Rois in Geneva. His tombstone bears the quote: "Health for all. All for health"