U.N. adopts rules to prevent disease spread

Member states of the World Health Organization on Monday agreed new rules, including possible travel and trade restrictions, to help prevent deadly diseases such as bird flu or SARS crossing borders.

The regulations, adopted by the U.N. agency’s 192 member states after two years of negotiations, oblige countries to tighten up disease detection, and lay down guidelines for international measures to be taken.In the future, the WHO must be quickly informed of any outbreak of four diseases – two new threats identified in Asia, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and bird flu, and two traditional virulent viruses, smallpox and polio.But any “potential international public health concern,” including outbreaks from unknown causes or sources, and potentially deadly sicknesses such as cholera and yellow fever, must also be reported when they are sufficiently serious.China, which was the source of the 2003 SARS outbreak, which spread to 30 countries and killed 800 people, was accused of being slow to inform the WHO and neighboring countries of what was at the time a new disease.”This is a major step forward for international health,” said Dr. Lee Jong-wook, WHO director-general. “These new regulations recognize that diseases do not respect national boundaries. They are urgently needed to help limit the threats to public health,” he added.The regulations greatly extend the scope of the previous guidelines, drawn up in 1969, which required countries to report three diseases – cholera, plague and yellow fever – to the U.N. agency, but demanded little else.HELP PREPAREIn any disagreement between the WHO and a member state on the seriousness of an outbreak, the rules allow the head of the U.N. body to summon a committee of experts to make recommendations on tackling the health threat.Such recommendations could range from continued vigilance to the requesting of proof of vaccination and to travel bans for people or goods.In a further concession from member states normally jealous of their sovereignty, the WHO can also take account of disease reports from sources other than the government concerned when making its assessments.Officials said that the rules, which it is hoped will help the world prepare for a long-predicted influenza pandemic, did not so much break new ground as put what had been established practice on a formal footing.”What went before was ad hoc, nobody could be held responsible,” said Irish diplomat Mary Whelan, who chaired the negotiations on the new regulations.The rules are also about what countries cannot do. Any state imposing what others consider “inappropriate restrictions,” such as holding up cargo or passengers, must justify their actions.”You can be asked to justify on a scientific basis the reason for having applied those restrictive measures,” said Max Hardiman, WHO’s coordinator for the new health regulations.Although the regulations do not mention specifically biological or chemical agents, as the United States had wanted, health officials said these were covered by the requirement to report any serious threat to international health. (Source: Reuters Health, May 2005)