Report of the Review Committee on the Functioning of the International Health Regulations (2005) during the COVID-19 response
Date
2021
Type:
Article
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Abstract
It is just 10 years since the first Review Committee reported to the Sixty-fourth World Health Assembly on the performance of the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005 during the influenza A (H1N1) pandemic in 2009–2010. Among other observations, the Review Committee on the Functioning of the International Health Regulations (2005) in relation to Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 concluded that: “The world is ill-prepared to respond to a severe influenza pandemic or to any similarly global, sustained and threatening public health emergency”. The post-H1N1 review of the IHR drew particular attention to the many vulnerabilities in national public health capacities, limitations of scientific knowledge, difficulties in decision-making in the context of uncertainty, complexities in international cooperation and challenges in communication. It
also highlighted the need to further strengthen the WHO Secretariat’s internal capacity to respond to a
sustained public health emergency of international concern, such as a pandemic. Subsequent public
health efforts were directed towards strengthening health systems and building capacities at the
national, regional and global levels to prevent, detect and respond to health emergencies.
Today, however, it seems that those efforts were insufficient. Indeed, some of the countries that had
seemed best prepared to detect and respond to a deadly virus turned out to be among the least able to
prevent or control the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
nationally, internationally or both. Unprecedented levels of international collaboration in response to
the pandemic have been seen alongside concerning examples of isolationism. Countries with a strong
local public health approach were able to successfully suppress the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Clearly a
pandemic caused by a novel pathogen against which neither a vaccine nor effective treatment exists
can only be controlled by a strong and strategic public health response. Therefore, strengthening
public health capacities, alongside the integration of public health within the health sector and across
the whole of government, must be a high priority.
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Citation
Al-Abri S, Anami V, et. al. Report of the Review Committee on the Functioning of the International Health Regulations (2005) during the COVID-19 response. WHO’s work in health organization,30 April 2021, https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/a74-9-who-s-work-in-health-emergencies
Keywords
Covid-19, Health emergencies, World Health Organization, Regulations