Luanda, 21 November 2012 -- On 15 June 2007, the new International Health Regulations (IHR) came into force. These regulations, agreed by all African countries, were designed to help countries and WHO to work together to detect and control the international spread of serious public health threats, like infectious disease.

The IHR aim to quickly identify an outbreak or any other public health threat, including chemical and radiological hazards that could have an international impact, so that a fast and effective response can be organized.

Under the Regulations, countries are obliged to nominate a national focal point to communicate detailed public-health information to the World Health Organization. This includes case definitions, number of cases and deaths and conditions affecting the spread of the disease. Based on this information, the WHO Director-General will analyse the situation and determine whether the  threat poses a risk to other countries. If so, the Director-General may declare it to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), and will recommend containment measures and co-ordinate an international response.

To ensure that countries are able to detect and respond quickly to disease emergence, the IHR oblige countries to develop some core capacities in surveillance and response; upgrade laboratory capacity to be able to identify infectious diseases and conditions, and improve capacities for coordination, preparedness, field investigation, risk communication and social mobilization.

How have Member States fared in building core capacities to support the implementation of the new IHR?

The answer is in a report by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, presented to the Sixty-second Session of the Regional Committee for Africa which is taking place in Lu-anda, Angola. The Regional Director noted that although countries are making efforts, more needs to be done to effectively respond to the international spread of diseases. He noted  while 43 out of the 46 Member States of the WHO African Region had conducted core capacity assessment in line with IHR requirements, none had fully implemented their national IHR plans. WHO’s support to Member States enabled them to implement a series of preven-tive and control measures as well as benefit from a network of centres of excellence for dis-ease surveillance and response, laboratories and, food and drugs regulations. 

The Regional Director explained that in order to fully comply with the IHR, countries need adequate human and financial resources, predictable funding for IHR national plans and measures to retain highly-trained and skilled health personnel including members of the national IHR Focal Points.

He highlighted major obstacles to the implementation of the new IHR regulations in the African Region: weak collaboration between the health sector and other related government departments responsible for locations where infectious diseases may enter a country; inadequate skilled staff  to support IHR implementation; weak laboratory capacities for the diagnosis of chemical, biological and radio-nuclear events, and gaps in notifying or reporting outbreaks of public health events within 24 hours as required by IHR for fear of the economic consequences.

Dr Sambo recommended that, as a first step, countries should request a two-year extension to enable full implementation of IHR core capacities by 2014. 

Other recommendations include implementing needs assessment to map unmet needs; mobilizing and allocating adequate human and financial resources; strengthening of surveil-lance systems and health laboratory capacities; and empowering IHR Focal Points with the skills and resources that will ensure timely verification and notification of public health events to WHO IHR Contact Points.

He anticipates that the implementation of the recommendations contained in the report and greater compliance with the IHR will make African countries more secure from the spread of serious public health threats like infectious diseases.
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For more information, please contact:

Dr Benido Impouma, impoumab [at] afro.who.int (impoumab[at]afro[dot]who[dot]int);   tel: +47-241-39773
Samuel T. Ajibola, ajibolas [at] afro.who.int (ajibolas[at]afro[dot]who[dot]int) ; tel: +47-241-39378
José Caetano Caetanoj [at] ao.afro.who.int (Caetanoj[at]ao[dot]afro[dot]who[dot]int);  tel  +244 912220543
C. Boakye-Agyemang  boakyec [at] afro.who.int (boakyec[at]afro[dot]who[dot]int); tel: +472 413 9420, tel  +244 943801810

Implementation of International Health Regulations (2005) in the WHO African Region