The International Health Regulations Evolution
The International Health Regulations originated with the International Sanitary Regulations adapted at the International Sanitary Conference in Paris in 1851. The cholera epidemics that hit Europe in 1830 and 1847 made apparent the need for international cooperation in public health. In 1948, the World Health Organization Constitution came about. The Twenty-Second World Health Assembly (1969) adopted, revised and consolidated the International Sanitary Regulations, which were renamed the International Health Regulations (1969). The Twenty-Sixth World Health Assembly in 1973 amended the IHR (1969) in relation to provisions on cholera. In view of the global eradication of smallpox, the Thirty-fourth World Health Assembly amended the IHR (1969) to exclude smallpox in the list of notifiable diseases.
During the Forty-Eighth World Health Assembly in 1995, WHO and Member States agreed on the need to revise the IHR (1969). The revision of IHR (1969) came about because of its inherent limitations, most notably:
- narrow scope of notifiable diseases (cholera, plague, yellow fever). The past few decades have seen the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases. The emergence of “new” infectious agents Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever and the re-emergence of cholera and plague in South America and India, respectively;
- dependence on official country notification; and
- lack of a formal internationally coordinated mechanism to prevent the international spread of disease.
These challenges were placed against the backdrop of the increased travel and trade characteristic of the 20th century.
The IHR (2005) entered into force, generally, on 15 June 2007, and are currently binding on 194 countries (States Parties) across the globe, including all 193 Member States of WHO.
In 2010 at The Meeting of the States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and Their Destruction in Geneva the sanitary epidemiological reconnaissance was suggested as well-tested means for enhancing the monitoring of infections and parasitic agents, for practical implementation of the IHR (2005) with the aim was to prevent and minimize the consequences of natural outbreaks of dangerous infectious diseases as well as the treat of alleged use of biological weapons against BTWC States Parties. The significance of the sanitary epidemiological reconnaissance is pointed out in assessing the sanitary-epidemiological situation, organizing and conducting preventive activities, indicating and identifying pathogenic biological agents in the environmental sites, conducting laboratory analysis of biological materials, suppressing hotbeds of infectious diseases, providing advisory and practical assistance to local health authorities.
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