IHR News
The WHO quarterly bulletin on IHR implementation
What’s new in risk and disease control
International Travel and Health book and web site, edition 2012
Nearly 940 million international journeys were undertaken in 2010. Global travel on this scale exposes many people to a range of health risks – various disease agents and changes in temperature, altitude and humidity are just some of these risks – all of which can lead to ill health. Many of these risks, however, can be minimized by precautions taken before, during and after travel. This book explains how travellers can stay healthy, and provides WHO guidance on vaccinations, malaria chemoprophylaxis and treatment, personal protection against insects and other disease vectors, and safety in different environmental settings. It covers all the principal risks to travellers’ health, both during their journeys and at their destinations. It describes all relevant infectious diseases, including their causative agents, modes of transmission, clinical features and geographical distribution, and provides details of prophylactic and preventive measures.
Features of the 2012 edition include:
- information for last minute travellers;
- updated and improved vaccine-preventable disease descriptions;
- updated vaccine recommendations and schedules;
- revised list of countries and areas at risk of yellow fever;
- updated country list with malaria information; and
- updated maps showing disease distribution.
- Electronic versions will be available by the end of April on the ITH site
- Order the hardcopy of the book
Smallpox repository inspections: Meeting to review the inspection process, Oslo, 31 January to 2 February 2012
World Health Assembly Resolution 60.1 requests that biennial inspections of the two authorized repositories for smallpox are maintained, in order to ensure that conditions of storage of the virus and of research conducted in the laboratories meet the highest requirements for biosafety and biosecurity. Since the last biosafety inspection visits held in 2009, the two smallpox repositories have asked for an opportunity to meet with WHO to review the process for the inspections based on document CWA 15793 Laboratory Biorisk Management. The meeting took place in Oslo, Norway, from 31 January to 2 February 2012. Upcoming visits are planned in May 2012 (CDC) and October 2012 (VECTOR). Visit reports will be made available on the WHO web site.
Outbreak surveillance and response in humanitarian emergencies – WHO guidelines for EWARN implementation
The purpose of this document is to provide a standard framework and current best practice for implementation of an Early Warning and Response Network (EWARN) and its operation in the field, following humanitarian emergencies. These guidelines are intended for all individuals responsible for disease surveillance activities at all levels. These individuals include health facility staff, surveillance officers, epidemiologists, data analysts and statisticians, government health officials, sanitarians, managers of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), public health officers, laboratory personnel and community health workers. The aim of the document is to standardize the approach to surveillance and response in humanitarian emergencies, and also provide a framework for integration into, and strengthening of, longer-term national disease surveillance and response systems. The document has been developed in cooperation with numerous partners including the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).