THE NEW INTERNATIONAL HEALTH REGULATIONS

The most recent revision of the International Health Regulations (IHR), published in 2005, brought innovations with the purpose of overcoming the limitations faced by the 1969 regulations, which became more and more evident with the reoccurrence of old diseases and the appearance of new ones on the 70s and 80s. Through the review of the literature, of the international health regulations (1951, 1969, 2005) and of healthcare organizations websites, an essentially bibliographic and documental study was performed, with the objective of identifying and presenting the tools brought by the new RSI. Although this instrument shows promise in assisting in the global response to an outbreak, there are other factors involved, such as the economical, political, cultural and religious differences among the WHO Member-States: one must consider that some countries do not have the minimum basic infrastructure to satisfactorily meet less complex situations than the transnationalization of risks, and possibly will never be able to meet the basic national capacities to detect, assess, notify and inform a Public Health Emergency of International Importance (PHEIC) without the technical and financial assistance, not expressly foreseen by the new regulatory instrument. Moreover, the view that one can fully control the occurrence and spread of health events is greatly optimistic. Whenever possible, the intent of the regulations is to prevent the occurrence of health events, but when it is not possible, the goal becomes to minimize the spread and mitigate the severity of the consequences.