International Health Regulations

Logo of the World Health Organization

The International Health Regulations (IHR), first adopted by the World Health Assembly in 1969 and last revised in 2005, are legally binding rules that only apply to the WHO that is an instrument that aims for international collaboration "to prevent, protect against, control, and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease in ways that are commensurate with and restricted to public health risks and that avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade".[1][2][3] The IHR is the only international legal treaty with the responsibility of empowering the World Health Organization (WHO) to act as the main global surveillance system.[4][5]

In 2005, following the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak, several changes were made to the previous revised IHRs originating from 1969.[1][3] The 2005 IHR came into force in June 2007, with 196 binding countries that recognised that certain public health incidents, extending beyond disease, ought to be designated as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), as they pose a significant global threat.[6] Its first full application was in response to the swine flu pandemic of 2009.[3]

  1. ^ a b "WHO EMRO | Background | About | International Health Regulations". www.emro.who.int. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  2. ^ "What are the International Health Regulations and Emergency Committees? Q&A". www.who.int. World Health Organization. 19 December 2019.
  3. ^ a b c Heymann, David (2010). "Part of Chapter 4. Public Health, Global Governance, and the Revised International Health Regulations". Infectious Disease Movement in a Borderless World: Workshop Summary. Washington D.C.: National Academies Press. pp. 180–195. ISBN 978-0-309-14447-6.
  4. ^ Youde, Jeremy (2010), Youde, Jeremy (ed.), "The International Health Regulations", Biopolitical Surveillance and Public Health in International Politics, New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, pp. 147–175, doi:10.1057/9780230104785_7, ISBN 978-0-230-10478-5
  5. ^ Kohl, Katrin S.; Arthur, Ray R.; O'Connor, Ralph; Fernandez, Jose (2012). "Assessment of Public Health Events through International Health Regulations, United States, 2007–2011 - Volume 18, Number 7—July 2012 - Emerging Infectious Diseases journal - CDC". Emerging Infectious Diseases. 18 (7): 1047–1053. doi:10.3201/eid1807.120231. PMC 3376817. PMID 22709566.
  6. ^ Mullen, Lucia; Potter, Christina; Gostin, Lawrence O.; Cicero, Anita; Nuzzo, Jennifer B. (1 June 2020). "An analysis of International Health Regulations Emergency Committees and Public Health Emergency of International Concern Designations". BMJ Global Health. 5 (6): e002502. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2020-002502. ISSN 2059-7908. PMC 7299007. PMID 32546587.