If her appointment is approved, she will become the first Chinese person to head a major U.N. agency. She will replace South Korea's Lee Jong-wook who died during his term in May.
Dr. Chan, who has been supervising the WHO's response to bird flu and a possible flu pandemic, was voted ahead of four other candidates during a final session held on Wednesday. Chan beat Mexico's health minister, Julio Frenk, by a vote of 24-10.
The BBC quotes Chan saying in her campaign that she would focus on fighting chronic diseases such as Aids and tuberculosis if she was voted for the job.
She said, "No other international or national agency can get to an outbreak scene within 24 hours or marshal such technical expertise so fast."
Chan has a medical degree from the University of Western Ontario in Canada. She began working for the Hong Kong Department of Health in 1978. She was head of the department for nine years, where she tackled the world's initial bird flu outbreak in 1997.
