Public health emergency of international concern

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 /fk/ 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.