In an attempt to address emerging infectious communicable diseases of global significance, governments employ differing approaches. A country’s level of response to an outbreak of communicable disease depends largely on the said country’s economic capability. There is a strong correlation between economic wealth attainment and good health outcomes. The emergence of the Ebola virus in West Africa and the ensuring high death toll reaffirm this narrative. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are among the poorest countries in the world and had just emerged for armed conflicts. Their populations are economically deprived and they lack basic health infrastructures or material resources to provide adequate healthcare. Initial attempts made to combat
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The treaty recognizes the independence of sovereign states and set the contours of governance within each geographical area. Hence, governance of population health is fragmented under the Westphalian system. There is no international government in place to respond to emerging infectious diseases. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) emerged as a branch of the UN system from the ashes of WWII. It is the main directing and coordinating authority for health issues, including infectious disease control. The WHO is unique in that it has a legitimate mandate from member states. The WHO adopted the International Sanitary Regulations in 1951, which was intended to control the spread of communicable diseases of global significance. The original infectious agents included at the time were cholera, plague, yellow fever, smallpox, relapsing fever, and louse-borne typhus. The International Health Regulation (IHR) was adopted in 1969, which was revised to reflect the emerging diseases at the time such as Malaria and Poliomyelitis (Birn et al, 2009). The IHR was revised in 2007 to address contemporary global health threats. This new revision requires the WHO member states to report all events that are deemed public health emergency. This goes well beyond reporting of known pathogens but also the reporting of anticipated unknown emerging public health
The treaty recognizes the independence of sovereign states and set the contours of governance within each geographical area. Hence, governance of population health is fragmented under the Westphalian system. There is no international government in place to respond to emerging infectious diseases. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) emerged as a branch of the UN system from the ashes of WWII. It is the main directing and coordinating authority for health issues, including infectious disease control. The WHO is unique in that it has a legitimate mandate from member states. The WHO adopted the International Sanitary Regulations in 1951, which was intended to control the spread of communicable diseases of global significance. The original infectious agents included at the time were cholera, plague, yellow fever, smallpox, relapsing fever, and louse-borne typhus. The International Health Regulation (IHR) was adopted in 1969, which was revised to reflect the emerging diseases at the time such as Malaria and Poliomyelitis (Birn et al, 2009). The IHR was revised in 2007 to address contemporary global health threats. This new revision requires the WHO member states to report all events that are deemed public health emergency. This goes well beyond reporting of known pathogens but also the reporting of anticipated unknown emerging public health