International Health Regulations

Abstract

Over the centuries, certain diseases have been responsible for pandemics which were sometimes so catastrophic that civilisation itself was threatened. Diseases such as influenza, malaria and typhoid have all caused international disasters in the past but it was the “quarantinable” diseases which so terrorised nations that governments were eventually forced to come together and agree measures to be taken against them. This was neither a quick nor an easy process — between 1851 and 1897 there were ten international sanitary conferences but signed and ratified conventions did not result until the last decade of the century. In the twentieth century, the first decade saw the establishment of the Pan American Sanitary Organization (and Bureau) and the Office International d’Hygiene Publique. The latter was responsible for worldwide international health matters until the World Health Organisation was set up in 1946.