DESIGNING AN INTERNATIONAL-POLICY AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE CONTROLOF EMERGING INFECTIOUS-DISEASES - FIRST STEPS

As the pace of emergence and reemergence of infectious diseases quicke ns, the International Health Regulations, which have served as the leg al and policy framework of epidemic control for 45 years, are being re vised by the World Health Organization (WHO). In this article, we revi ew the recent history, legal construction, and application of these re gulations and related international treaty-based sanitary measures, es pecially the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, and the his tory of applying the regulations in the maritime and aviation industri es. This review indicates that revision efforts should address I)the l imited scope of disease syndromes (and reporters of these syndromes) n ow in the regulations and 2) the mismatch between multisectoral factor s causing disease emergence and the single agency (WHO) administering the regulations. The revised regulations should expand the scope of re porting and simultaneously broaden international agency coordination.