HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt today announced the United States has formally accepted the revised International Health Regulations (IHR), and will begin the process of implementing these new international rules immediately instead of waiting for them to take effect in June 2007. Secretary Leavitt made the announcement during a week-long visit to the People’s Republic of China.
The International Health Regulations are an international legal instrument that governs the roles of the World Health Organization (WHO) and its member countries in identifying and responding to and sharing information about public health emergencies of international concern.
First adopted by WHO Member States in 1969, the current IHRs apply to only three diseases: cholera, yellow fever and plague. However, in recent decades, increases in international travel and trade, along with marked developments in communication technology, have led to new challenges in the control of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. More information about the International Health Regulations (2005) is available at http://www.who.int/csr/ihr/en/.
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