A working group tasked with proposing ways to strengthen the World Health Organization’s preparedness and response to health emergencies has released a draft report for consideration by the World Health Assembly.
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The 56-page document includes recommendations for boosting the implementation and compliance of parties to the International Health Regulations, or IHR, and a possible timeline for amending them.
It proposes that WHO member states initiate an independent evaluation of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator and discuss the sustainability and future role of WHO initiatives such as its COVID-19 Technology Access Pool and “technology transfer hub” for messenger RNA vaccines, as well as the WHO BioHub System.
To strengthen equity, the report says member states should establish and scale up national and regional manufacturing capacities for the development and delivery of vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other essential supplies during emergencies. It also asks them “to consider processes for transfer of technology and know-how, including to and among larger manufacturing hubs in each region.”
Given that the working group’s efforts involved a review of existing recommendations for pandemic preparedness and response, many of the report’s proposals are not new.
One recommendation is for the WHO Secretariat to consider a different acronym when referring to so-called public health emergencies of international concern, as the abbreviation “PHEIC” is sometimes pronounced like the word “fake” in English. The report also suggests that WHO publish information on disease outbreaks with pandemic potential “on an immediate basis” and that member states discuss the feasibility of developing an intermediate and/or regional alert systems for health emergencies.
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It proposes a detailed approach for amending the IHR, asking the 75th World Health Assembly to adopt any amendments that are currently ready. It suggests that the WHO director-general convene a review committee to make technical recommendations for proposed amendments submitted to the WHO Secretariat by June 30 of this year.
The report also says that the IHR review committee should provide a report to WHO’s director-general by October, while a member state-led process should finalize the proposed amendments and then submit them to the director-general by January of next year. If needed, this process can continue its work until the 76th World Health Assembly, expected to take place in May 2023.
The U.S. has already submitted proposals for IHR amendments to be considered by the 75th WHA. These show a particular focus on state parties providing early notification to WHO about events that may constitute a PHEIC, as well as WHO having a 24-hour window to offer to work with state parties to verify reports and assess a disease’s potential to spread internationally.
If a state party does not accept this offer within 48 hours, WHO would then have to immediately report available information to other countries “when justified by the magnitude of the public health risk.”
The amendments proposed by the U.S. also include a provision on deliberations of the IHR emergency committee, noting that if the group “is not unanimous in its findings, any member shall be entitled to express his or her dissenting professional views in an individual or group report, which shall state the reasons why a divergent opinion is held and shall form part of the Emergency Committee’s report.”
Among its other proposals, the U.S. also suggests that state parties establish a compliance committee on implementation of the IHR. The committee would be composed of six government experts per region who are appointed by state parties and serve four-year terms.
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
