Strengthening Response to Pandemics and Other Public-Health Emergencies
The IHR establish a regime for the routine protection of public health and provide for the management of disease threats, both in countries and at their borders. They also provide a framework for coordinated and proportionate responses to significant emerging disease threats. Such threats may range from public-health events affecting one or more countries to events of global public-health significance. The provisions of the IHR are legally binding on States Parties and WHO. The IHR introduced a number of key innovations, including the replacement of a list of notifiable diseases with a decision instrument (Annex 2), to assist countries to determine whether an event may constitute a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The 2009 pandemic was the first major test of the IHR.
