Dr Shigeru Omi was born in Tokyo, Japan, in June 1949. In 1967, on a scholarship from the American Field Service, he attended Potsdam High School in New York and graduated in 1968. He studied Law at Keio University in Japan from 1969 to 1971. He obtained his degree in Medicine from Jichi Medical School in 1978. Dr Omi obtained his doctorate in molecular biology of the hepatitis B virus at the Jichi Medical School, Japan, in 1990.
Dr Omi has held a wide range of positions in the field of medicine and public health. After graduation from medical school in 1978, he worked as a Medical Officer in the Bureau of Public Health of Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The job included an assignment as the sole medical doctor on remote islands in the Pacific, where he worked under difficult conditions and with limited resources. From this field activity, he proceeded in 1987 to do research on the molecular biology of the hepatitis B virus at the Division of Immunology, Jichi Medical School. During 1989-1990, Dr Omi served as Deputy Director in the Office of Medical Guidance and Inspection, Bureau of Health Insurance, in the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Japan.
Dr Omi joined the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Regional Office in Manila, Philippines, in 1990 as the Responsible Officer for the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI). Dr Omi spearheaded the regional poliomyelitis (polio) eradication initiative in the Western Pacific Region. In 1995, he was promoted to the position of Director of the Division of Communicable Disease Prevention and Control, a post he held until 1998. In 1998-1999, Dr Omi was a professor of public health at Jichi Medical School, Japan. In February 1999, Dr Omi assumed the position of WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific.
It was during Dr Omi's first term as Regional Director that WHO played the lead role in combating the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the first emerging and readily transmissible disease of the 21st century. More than 95% of the SARS cases occurred in the Western Pacific Region. He spearheaded efforts to contain SARS by both tackling the medical issues and addressing the sensitive political concerns inherent in such events.
Dr Omi also gave special emphasis to tuberculosis during his first term by making the "Stop TB" programme one of the Region's flagship projects.
Dr Omi was elected to a second term as Regional Director in January 2004. A month earlier, the A(H5N1) avian influenza virus was detected in the Region. Much of Dr Omi's work in his second term has focused on working with WHO Member States and various partner agencies to avert a potential influenza pandemic.
Dr Omi is married and has two children and two grandchildren.