Commissioner Kyprianou welcomes new WHO agreement

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Markos Kyprianou, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, has welcomed the agreement reached at the World Health Assembly today to strengthen international cooperation against infectious disease outbreaks. SARS in 2003 has shown how quickly infectious diseases can spread around the globe. Health ministers and senior officials from 192 countries agreed to new rules requiring all major public health events of international concern to be reported to the World Health Organization (WHO). This would include major disease outbreaks, and also suspected "bio-terrorism" events (i.e. the deliberate release of biological pathogens). Cooperation in responding to such events will also be strengthened by the revised International Health Regulations (IHR) adopted today. The EU has helped lead the drive to strengthen the IHR. In 2003 the European Commission was given a mandate to negotiate for this in the WHO (see IP/03/1282). The EU is also acting to reinforce its own defences against infectious diseases. On 27 May in Stockholm a new EU agency, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), will be officially launched.

Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said: "The drive to strengthen international cooperation against future epidemics complements our efforts to reinforce Europe's defences against disease. The quicker we are alerted to a disease outbreak the greater the chances we can successfully contain it. If international cooperation can help stop an epidemic before it really gets started the whole world will be better off as a result."

The IHR were adopted in 1969, and have been updated twice since then (in 1973 and 1981). In May 2003, the World Health Assembly agreed to launch a review. The European Commission and the 25 EU Member States have played a central role in negotiating the revision to the IHR agreed by the World Health Assembly today.

Up until now, outbreaks of only three diseases - cholera, plague and yellow fever - had to be notified to the WHO. The revised IHR requires national authorities to notify the WHO of all major public health threats with the potential to spread. They also require the WHO to assist its members in responding to such threats and provide a basis for greater international cooperation in this field. The new rules should come into force in 2007.

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control

A system of Europe-wide surveillance and an early warning and response system against infectious disease has been operational in the EU since 1998 (see MEMO/03/155).

On 27 May Commissioner Kyprianou, the Swedish Minister for Public Health and Social Services, Morgan Johansson, and Minister Mars Di Bartolomeo on behalf of the Luxembourg Presidency will inaugurate the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). This new EU agency will reinforce and develop Europe's disease surveillance system. It will also provide EU policy makers with authoritative scientific advice on new and emerging health threats. The inauguration ceremony will be held at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

Further Information

For further information on the EU cooperation against health threats see:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/health/ph_threats/threats_en.htm

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