WHO director-general, Margaret Chan, and HAI executive director, Tim Reed, at a WHA67 event.

Those of us who attended the 67th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva were slightly disappointed that we were not treated to the sensation of Margaret Chan (director-general of the World Health Organization) singing during this year’s meetings. It has indeed become an annual highlight, cruelly deleted from this year’s proceedings.

But fear not!

My wife, who recently returned from the animal equivalent of the WHA in Paris (the World Organisation for Animal Health, or OIE, Assembly) reported that DG Chan sang a full solo verse of ‘Happy Birthday’ during plenary in honour of this year’s 90th anniversary of the OIE.

Let’s hope that the WHO, OIE and United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) are all singing from the same song sheet when it comes to the promised global strategy on antimicrobial resistance.