WHO Adopts New International Health Regs

The World Health Assembly approved a new set of international health regulations Tuesday to manage public health emergencies of international concern.

The rules and operational mechanisms for a more coordinated international response to the spread of disease is in response to recent outbreaks of SARS in 2003 and avian influenza in 2004-05, the assembly said in a statement.

The original International Health Regulations of 1969 were designed to help monitor and control six serious infectious diseases — cholera, plague, yellow fever, smallpox, relapsing fever and typhus. The new rules will govern a broader range of public health emergencies in all 192 member countries.

Under the revised regulations, countries have much broader obligations to create routine preventive measures as well as to detect and respond to public health emergencies of international concern. These routine measures include a public health presence at ports, airports, land borders and for means of transport that use them to travel internationally.