International Health Regulations

Bob Sims · medicine forum addict Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 98

World health officials agree to report all major disease outbreaks
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Health ministers and senior officials from 192 countries today [20 May
2005] agreed to new rules requiring all major public health events of
international concern to be reported to the World Health Organization
(WHO). Up until now, outbreaks of only 3 diseases -- cholera, plague
and
yellow fever -- had to be notified to the WHO, but not world's biggest
fear: the start of a global flu pandemic.

The revised International Health Regulations adopted today [20 May
2005] at
the World Health Assembly mean that the WHO will be notified of all
major
disease outbreaks, and also notified of suspected bio-terrorism events,

such as the deliberate release of biological pathogens.

The revised regulations require the WHO to assist its members in
responding
to such threats and provide a basis for greater international
cooperation
in this field. The new rules should come into force in 2007.

International cooperation against infectious disease outbreaks will be
strengthened by the new notification rules, said Markos Kyprianou,
European
Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection. Severe Acute
Respiratory
Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 has shown how quickly infectious diseases can
spread around the globe, he said.

Kyprianou said, "The drive to strengthen international cooperation
against
future epidemics complements our efforts to reinforce Europe's defenses

against disease. The quicker we are alerted to a disease outbreak, the
greater the chances we can successfully contain it."

"If international cooperation can help stop an epidemic before it
really
gets started, the whole world will be better off as a result," he said.

The International Health Regulations were adopted in 1969, and have
been
updated twice since then, in 1973 and 1981.

In May 2003, the World Health Assembly agreed to launch a review of the

regulations. The European Commission and the 25 EU member states have
played a central role in negotiating the revision to the regulations
agreed
by the World Health Assembly today Kyprianou said.

A system of Europe-wide surveillance and an early warning and response
system against infectious disease has been operational in the European
Union since 1998, but now the EU is acting to reinforce its own
defenses
against infectious diseases. Later this month [May 2005] in Stockholm,
a
new EU agency, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
(ECDC), will be officially launched.

On 27 May [2005], Commissioner Kyprianou, the Swedish Minister for
Public
Health and Social Services, Morgan Johansson, and Minister Mars Di
Bartolomeo, on behalf of the Luxembourg Presidency, will inaugurate the

ECDC. The inauguration ceremony will be held at the Karolinska
Institute in
Stockholm.

This new EU agency will reinforce and develop Europe's disease
surveillance
system and will also provide EU policy makers with authoritative
scientific
advice on new and emerging health threats.

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt put the
prevention
of a global flu pandemic at the top of his priority list and told
reporters
at a briefing in Geneva that implementing the U.S. plan for HIV/AIDS
relief
in 15 focus nations is another important U.S. concern.

Completing the eradication of polio worldwide, improving the response
to
bioterrorism and developing a better global system for communicating
health
information were also cited as priorities.

Leavitt's concerns about a global flu pandemic arise from the
widespread
outbreak of bird flu now plaguing 11 Asian nations. Hundreds of
millions of
birds have been destroyed to prevent further spread of the H5N1 flu
virus.
This strain has also caused illness among about 90 people.

"What concerns us greatly is the fact that there is virtually no human
immunity to this particular strain," Leavitt said. "We're working
feverishly to develop a vaccine. The vaccine is now in clinical
trials."

U.S. health officials acknowledged that the vaccine in development
might
not provide complete protection from a still-unknown mutation of the
H5N1
strain of bird flu virus that could spread among humans and set a
pandemic
in motion.

Still, they said, the vaccine now being manufactured provides a head
start
should the need arise to develop massive numbers of doses for use in
response to a global pandemic.

Dr. Julie Gerberding, who heads the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and
Prevention, told reporters, "We agree that the question is not if a
pandemic will occur, it is when will the pandemic will occur."

"We don't know when, but right now, the situation that we see in South
East
Asia is one that is characterized by a very large amount of virus
circulating widely among poultry and waterfowl and evidence of
transmission
to people with a very bad outcome," Gerberding said. "So it is a very
virulent, deadly form of the virus, and we can't afford to take the
chance
that this is the one that will become more transmissible to people, so
we're taking all the steps now that we can to try to prevent it from
evolving, but also to be prepared to contain it if it should emerge and

protect people more broadly if that becomes necessary."

The World Health Assembly continues through 25 May 2005.

Guest

As the world waits for a deadly repetition of the devastating 1918
influenza pandemic, more and more urgent warnings are being issued by
an increasing number of experts and organizations concerning the
near-future likelihood of a global avia flu pandemic.

A pandemic that could kill up to 20% of the world's population.

But, despite an increasing flood of bad news, China claims to have
developed an absolutely effective bird flu vaccine.

Will there be enough time to produce and stockpile sufficient vaccine
doses in the face of what increasingly appears to be a rapidly-mutating
and widely-spreading avian flu virus?

Read these alarming accounts, and more, on these comprehensive news web
page:

'The Coming Global 'Bird Flu' Pandemic - Warnings Increase As China
Claims A Cure'
http://www.nwointelligence.com/NEWS189.HTM

'Will The 1918 Flu Be An Elite Tool For Global De-Population?'
http://www.nwointelligence.com/1918FLU.HTM

'SARS And Flu - Epidemic And Pandemic News Reports'
http://www.nwointelligence.com/SARSFLU.HTM

And for more up-to-date news you need to know on the collapsing U.S.
dollar, the declining U.S. economy, the rise of China, and the New
World Order, visit the news story index page at
http://www.nwointelligence.com/newsitem.htm

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