The revised International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005) entered into force on 15 June 2007. The revised Regulations provide the international legal framework to identify, assess, communicate, and respond through a collective and all-hazard approach to any threat to public health that has potential for international concern.

The IHR contain rights and obligations for States Parties (and functions for the World Health Organization (WHO)) concerning national and international surveillance; assessment and public health response; health measures applied by States Parties to international travelers, aircraft, ships, motor vehicles and goods; public health at international ports, airports and ground crossings (together referred to as “points of entry”); and many other areas. The revised IHR represent a number of important shifts: from a focus on selected diseases to all public health events of potential international concern; from the control of disease at borders to the containment of disease at source; and from preset measures to adapted responses to events. The revised IHR therefore accommodate natural, environmental, industrial, accidental, or indeed, deliberate threats – they represent an all-hazards approach to public health [8].

The IHR (2005) defines a risk management process in which member states work with and through WHO in order to collectively manage acute threats to public health. The revised IHR provide obligations for states, including the requirement to have or develop minimum core public health capacities to implement the Regulations effectively. IHR core capacities include legislation and policy; coordination; surveillance; response; preparedness; risk communication; human resources; and laboratory; as well as requirements for points of entry.¹ Key milestones for member states include the assessment of their surveillance and response capacities and the development and implementation of plans of action to ensure that these core capacities are functioning by 2012.

The revised IHR also mandate a key role for WHO in the detection and management of public health events with potential international concern.² Under the Regulations, WHO must accurately and rapidly identify and then assess public health risks of potential international concern. If the risk assessment warrants it, WHO must then inform member states of such threats and, upon request, assist affected states with response efforts. Based on the fulfillment of specific criteria, the WHO Director-General may declare an assessed event to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) [10].