scholarly journals SARS: Political Pathology of the First Post-Westphalian Pathogen

2003 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
David P. Fidler

In March 2003, the world discovered, again, that I humanity's battle with infectious diseases continues. The twenty-first century began with infectious diseases, especially HIV/AIDS, being discussed as threats to human rights, economic development, and national security. Bioterrorism in the United States in October 2001 increased concerns about pathogenic microbes. The global outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in the spring of 2003 kept the global infectious disease challenge at the forefront of world news for weeks. At its May 2003 annual meeting, the World Health organization (WHO) asserted that SARS is “the first severe infectious disease to emerge in the twenty-first century” and “poses a serious threat to global health security, the livelihood of populations, the functioning of health systems, and the stability and growth of economies.”

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Atresha Karra, JD ◽  
Emily Cornette, JD

This article focuses on the existing methods for tracking and restricting the spread of communicable diseases, both within United States borders and across nations. It will first describe the roles played by the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization and will then explore how communicable diseases across the world are identified and monitored. This will be followed by a discussion of US and world reporting requirements and methods. Finally, the article will discuss the tactics used by the United States to control the spread of disease.


2003 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
◽  
◽  
◽  

All projected tasks for the European Commission’s Task Force for Biological and Chemical Attacks (http://europa.eu.int/comm/health/ph/programmes/bio-terrorism/index_en.html) take both biological and chemical threats into account. The Task Force experts have compiled information from a series of valid lists of toxic threats, from bodies including the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Australia Group* (AG), the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and others. A list of suspicious chemicals and toxins is being finalised by the Task Force, working with their counterparts in the Global Health Security Initiative of the G7+ countries (1).


Author(s):  
Gian Luca Burci

This article reviews the main international and institutional legal aspects of cooperation in the fight against the plague of infectious diseases. It makes a particular reference to the role of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other agencies of the UN system. This article underscores the intrinsically international dimension of the realization of the essential importance of international cooperation.


2001 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 647-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Pappas ◽  
Nancy Moss

Health for All in the Twenty-first Century is the document presenting the global health policy adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1998, which reaffirms and updates the vision of Alma-Ata. This article provides a synopsis of the document and a commentary, concentrating on the issue of equity, which is central to WHO policy, and discussing cultural differences that underpin the notion of equity. The meaning of “equity” implies measurement, and the authors develop an approach to definitions of social strata and data issues that are used to quantify health differences. Finally, they discuss the way in which policies invoking equity are implemented into programs and present a rights-based approach as a case study of one way in which policy is being translated into action.


2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (37) ◽  
Author(s):  
R Harling

Following the deliberate releases of anthrax in the United States last autumn, the World Health Organization (WHO) identified a need to review existing emergency plans and implement further actions to allow member states, WHO and other international organisations to prevent, prepare for and respond to deliberate releases of chemical and biological agents (1). Previous WHO guidance on the threat of bioterrorism, specific activities at European Union level, and the coordinated international initiative to improve global health security, have been described in Eurosurveillance Weekly (2-5).


Author(s):  
Petr Ilyin

Especially dangerous infections (EDIs) belong to the conditionally labelled group of infectious diseases that pose an exceptional epidemic threat. They are highly contagious, rapidly spreading and capable of affecting wide sections of the population in the shortest possible time, they are characterized by the severity of clinical symptoms and high mortality rates. At the present stage, the term "especially dangerous infections" is used only in the territory of the countries of the former USSR, all over the world this concept is defined as "infectious diseases that pose an extreme threat to public health on an international scale." Over the entire history of human development, more people have died as a result of epidemics and pandemics than in all wars combined. The list of especially dangerous infections and measures to prevent their spread were fixed in the International Health Regulations (IHR), adopted at the 22nd session of the WHO's World Health Assembly on July 26, 1969. In 1970, at the 23rd session of the WHO's Assembly, typhus and relapsing fever were excluded from the list of quarantine infections. As amended in 1981, the list included only three diseases represented by plague, cholera and anthrax. However, now annual additions of new infections endemic to different parts of the earth to this list take place. To date, the World Health Organization (WHO) has already included more than 100 diseases in the list of especially dangerous infections.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 724-727 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasim Sadat Hosseini Divkolaye ◽  
Mohammad Hadi Radfar ◽  
Fariba Seighali ◽  
Frederick M. Burkle

AbstractObjectiveHealth diplomacy has increasingly become a crucial element in forging political neutrality and conflict resolution and the World Health Organization has strongly encouraged its use. Global turmoil has heightened, especially in the Middle East, and with it, political, religious, and cultural differences have become major reasons to incite crises.MethodsThe authors cite the example of the human stampede and the deaths of over 2000 pilgrims during the 2015 annual Haj pilgrimage in Mecca.ResultsThe resulting political conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia had the potential to escalate into a more severe political and military crisis had it not been for the ministers of health from both countries successfully exercising “soft power” options.ConclusionGlobal health security demands critical health diplomacy skills and training for all health providers. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;page 1 of 4)


2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Joseph Meaney ◽  

COVID-19 vaccine passports run the risk of creating a divided society where social privileges or restrictions based on “fitness” lead to discrimination based on immunization status. Individuals have a strong right to be free of coercion to take a COVID-19 vaccine, and we should be very leery of further invasion of private medical decisions. These concerns are shared both internationally and in the United States, and the World Health Organization, the Biden administration, and many US governors oppose COVID-19 vaccine credentials. In addition, regulations for COVID-19 vaccine credentials face practical barriers, including lack of access globally, especially among the poor; and lack of scientific data on the efficacy of these vaccines.


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