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World Health Assembly Revises International Health Regulations and Advances Pandemic Accord
World Health Assembly Revises International Health Regulations and Advances Pandemic Accord
The World Health Assembly has reached a consensus on significant revisions to the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR). It has indicated that it is committed to concluding discussions on a worldwide pandemic accord within a year, at the very latest, and perhaps in 2024. To safeguard the health and safety of all people worldwide from the possibility of future outbreaks and pandemics, certain efforts have been taken to guarantee that complete and resilient mechanisms are in place in all nations.
The historic choices today reflect that Member States have a shared goal to safeguard their people and the people of the globe from the risk of public health catastrophes and future pandemics with which they are all familiar. Global preparedness, surveillance, and responses to public health emergencies, including pandemics, will be strengthened due to the International Health Regulations (IHR) revisions.
One of the latest revisions to the International Health Regulations (IHR) is the introduction of a definition of a pandemic emergency. This concept is intended to spur more efficient international collaboration in response to situations that are either in the process of becoming a pandemic or have already been one. The term "pandemic emergency" refers to a communicable disease that has or is at high risk of having a wide geographical spread to and within multiple states, that exceeds or is at high risk of exceeding the capacity of health systems to respond in those states, that causes substantial social and/or economic disruption, including disruption to international traffic and trade, and that necessitates rapid, equitable, and enhanced coordinated international action, with approaches that involve the entire government and the entire society.
As a result of the fact that the next pandemic is a matter of when, rather than if, the decision to finalize the Pandemic Agreement within the next year illustrates how strongly and urgently countries want it. The strengthening of the International Health Regulations (IHR) that took place today creates great momentum to finish the Pandemic Agreement, which, once it is finalized, can assist in preventing a repetition of the destruction that COVID-19 brought to health, society, and economy.
It was agreed upon by the countries that they would proceed with the negotiations of the proposed Pandemic Agreement to enhance international coordination, collaboration, and equality to prevent, prepare for, and respond to future pandemics. The member states of the World Health Organisation (WHO) concluded that the mandate of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, which was established in December 2021, should be extended so that it can complete its work to negotiate a Pandemic Agreement within a year, by the World Health Assembly in 2025, or earlier if it should be possible at a special session of the Health Assembly in 2024.
