Global health reform must continue amid new infectious disease threats
BMJ 2024; 386 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q1601 (Published 02 August 2024) Cite this as: BMJ 2024;386:q1601
- Alexandra L Phelan, associate professor1,
- Benjamin Mason Meier, professor of global health policy2,
- Roojin Habibi, assistant professor3,
- Lawrence O Gostin, director4
- 1Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
- 2Department of Health Policy and Management, Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
- 3Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, ON, Canada
- 4O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC, USA
- Correspondence to: A Phelan aphelan4{at}jhu.edu
The adoption of amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) at the World Health Assembly in May 2024 represents much needed reform of global health law to meet the challenges of future public health emergencies. Despite wavering confidence in international law and multilateralism, these reforms show “that consensus through diplomacy on important global health issues is feasible.”1 The regulations now incorporate principles of equity and solidarity, reframing the IHR towards justice and cooperation between nations, and include measures to secure financing and facilitate implementation.
Although the amendments provide new authority for the declaration of a pandemic emergency, they are not sufficient to confront the next pandemic. World Health Organization (WHO) member states must now ensure further progress through the negotiation and adoption of an ambitious pandemic agreement.2 With the World Health Assembly resolving to complete negotiations for a pandemic agreement by May 2025, these two interconnected instruments must be seen as “two wings of the same bird”—both necessary but alone insufficient to secure a safer future for all.
The IHR are currently the only international legal framework for global health security under WHO governance. Introducing …
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