Guest Editorial: Global Health Governance of Public Health Emergencies

Abstract

In 2007, the revised International Health Regulations (IHR)1 came into force for 194 World Health Assembly Member States which had agreed 2 years earlier in 2005 to implement substantial reforms to ensure cooperation and timely response in the event of a public health emergency.2 Since then, Swine Flu influenza (H1N1), the international spread of wild poliovirus, Ebola, and Zika have each been declared public health emergencies of international concern as defined under the revised IHR. There have also been emergency committees convened by the Director-General of the WHO, under the auspices of the IHR, to discuss the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS, 2013) and the Yellow Fever outbreaks (since 2016) with no declaration of a public health emergency for either outbreak.