BMJ  2005;330:321-322 (12 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7487.321

Editorial

Proposed new International Health Regulations

Agreement must be reached to protect the global village from pandemic influenza

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Infectious diseases have never respected national boundaries, and ever increasing movement of people and goods means that no country or region, no matter how wealthy, can make itself invulnerable to infections emerging elsewhere.^{1 2} Equally neither can any country be confident that it will not be the source of a threat to the global community.² The International Health Regulations are legal instruments designed to provide the maximum security against the international spread of infectious disease with minimal interference with world traffic.^{3 4} Although the World Health Organization is responsible for the regulations, they are agreed collectively by its member states. Individual states may state a reservation, but great trouble is taken to come up with regulations that almost every country will sign up to. The current regulations (in place since 1969) have been recognised to be inadequate for today's global village and the acid tests that countries may face (box).^{5 6} WHO . . . [Full text of this article]

Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, Health Protection Agency Centre for Infections, London NW9 5EQ (angus.nicoll@hpa.org.uk)

Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, Health Protection Agency Centre for Infections, London NW9 5EQ

Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Division of Infectious Disease Control, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, PO Box 4404, Nydalen, N-0403 Oslo, Norway

Smittskyddsinstitutet (SMI), S-171 82 Solna, Sweden

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

H5N1 influenza and the implications for Europe

Denis Coulombier and Karl Ekdahl
BMJ 2005 331: 413-414. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Coulombier, D., Ekdahl, K. (2005). H5N1 influenza and the implications for Europe. BMJ 331: 413-414 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

A good-and-for-all revision of the International Health Regulations

Peter CHANG
bmj.com, 14 Feb 2005 [Full text]

Low-cost outbreak monitoring

John P. Woodall
bmj.com, 15 Feb 2005 [Full text]

Online poll

Find out more >>