Public health emergency of international concern

For other uses, see Public health emergency (disambiguation).

Logo of the World Health Organization, the authority that declares PHEICs
Map of WHO regional offices and their respective operating regions:
  Africa; HQ: Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo
  Americas; HQ: Washington, D.C., United States
  Eastern Mediterranean; HQ: Cairo, Egypt
  Europe; HQ: Copenhagen, Denmark
  South East Asia; HQ: New Delhi, India
  Western Pacific; HQ: Manila, Philippines

A public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC /feɪk/ FAYK) is a formal declaration by the World Health Organization (WHO) of "an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response", formulated when a situation arises that is "serious, sudden, unusual, or unexpected", which "carries implications for public health beyond the affected state's national border" and "may require immediate international action".[1] Under the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR), states have a legal duty to respond promptly to a PHEIC.[2] The declaration is publicized by an IHR Emergency Committee (EC) of international experts,[3] which was developed following the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak.[4]

Since 2005, there have been eight PHEIC declarations: the 2009–2010 H1N1 (or swine flu) pandemic, the ongoing 2014 polio declaration, the 2013–2016 outbreak of Ebola in Western Africa, the 2015–16 Zika virus epidemic,[5] the 2018–2020 Kivu Ebola epidemic,[6] the 2020–2023 declaration for the COVID-19 pandemic,[7] and the 2022–2023 and 2024 mpox outbreaks.[8][9] The recommendations are temporary and require reviews every three months.[1]

Automatically, SARS, smallpox, wild type poliomyelitis, and any new subtype of human influenza are considered as PHEICs and thus do not require an IHR decision to declare them as such.[10] A PHEIC is not only confined to infectious diseases, and may cover an emergency caused by exposure to a chemical agent or radioactive material.[11][12] It can be seen as an "alarm system", a "call to action", and "last resort" measure.[13][14]

  1. ^ a b WHO Q&A (19 June 2019). "International Health Regulations and Emergency Committees". WHO. Archived from the original on 15 August 2021. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  2. ^ Eccleston-Turner, Mark; McArdle, Scarlett (2020). "The law of responsibility and the World Health Organisation: a case study on the West African ebola outbreak". In Eccleston-Turner, Mark; Brassington, Iain (eds.). Infectious Diseases in the New Millennium: Legal and Ethical Challenges. Switzerland: Springer. pp. 89–110. ISBN 978-3-030-39818-7.
  3. ^ "Strengthening health security by implementing the International Health Regulations (2005); About IHR". WHO. Archived from the original on 25 July 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hoffman2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hunger2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference WHO18Oct2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "Statement on the thirteenth meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee regarding the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic". www.who.int. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  8. ^ "Mpox (monkeypox)". www.who.int. World Health Organization. 2024. Archived from the original on 14 August 2024. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  9. ^ "WHO Director-General declares mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern". www.who.int. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  10. ^ Mark A. Hall; David Orentlicher; Mary Anne Bobinski; Nicholas Bagley; I. Glenn Cohen (2018). "8. Public Health Law". Health Care Law and Ethics (9th ed.). New York: Wolters Kluwer. p. 908. ISBN 978-1-4548-8180-3.
  11. ^ Wilder-Smith, Annelies; Osman, Sarah (8 December 2020). "Public health emergencies of international concern: a historic overview". Journal of Travel Medicine. 27 (8). doi:10.1093/jtm/taaa227. ISSN 1195-1982. PMC 7798963. PMID 33284964.
  12. ^ Gostin, Lawrence O.; Katz, Rebecca (2017). "6. The International Health Regulations: the governing framework for global health security". In Halabi, Sam F.; Crowley, Jeffrey S.; Gostin, Lawrence Ogalthorpe (eds.). Global Management of Infectious Disease After Ebola. Oxford University Press. p. 110. ISBN 978-0190604882. Archived from the original on 7 April 2022. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  13. ^ Rull, Monica; Kickbusch, Ilona; Lauer, Helen (8 December 2015). "Policy Debate | International Responses to Global Epidemics: Ebola and Beyond". International Development Policy. 6 (2). doi:10.4000/poldev.2178. ISSN 1663-9375.
  14. ^ Maxmen, Amy (23 January 2021). "Why did the world's pandemic warning system fail when COVID hit?". Nature. 589 (7843): 499–500. Bibcode:2021Natur.589..499M. doi:10.1038/d41586-021-00162-4. PMID 33500574. S2CID 231768830. Archived from the original on 29 April 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2021.