Description: Until recently, obligations for countries governed by the WHO International Health Regulations (IHR) were limited to monitoring, reporting on, and controlling a limited number of diseases. In 1969, when the Regulations were adopted, six communicable diseases were included: cholera, plague, yellow fever, smallpox, relapsing fever, and typhus. By 1981, only cholera, plague, and yellow fever remained on the list. In the past, reporting was often made at the discretion of the affected countries. Cholera, for instance, was underreported or, when politically convenient, re-labeled as “acute watery diarrhea.”
In the last few years, however, international concern over issues such as the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in industrialized countries, with its consequent global economic impact, the impending threat of an influenza pandemic, or the worst-case scenario of a deliberate release of hazardous agents, has prompted a fundamental revision of the International Health Regulations. Following extensive deliberations, the World Health Assembly adopted the revised Regulations on 23 May 2005.
Keywords: WHO International Health Regulations (IHR), cholera, plague, yellow fever, smallpox, relapsing fever, typhus, SARS, epidemic, Public Health
