States could be sanctioned for public health failings: Margaret Chan

[Pathfinder]

Health | Tue Oct 20, 2015 12:53pm EDT Related: HEALTH

States could be sanctioned for public health failings: WHO boss

A U.N. panel is considering ways to hold governments to account for failing to stick to global health rules, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan said on Tuesday.

"This goes back to governments. If they sign up to the international health regulations they need to honor their commitment. Because if they don?t do their part they pose a risk to their neighbors and beyond," she told a news conference.

A global health crisis review set up by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is looking at how to make them accountable, according to Chan.
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Weak health care systems have been blamed for thE recent West African Ebola epidemic, and Chan said poor standards in Saudi Arabia and South Korea had hastened the spread of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/20/us-health-who-chan-idUSKCN0SE29S20151020

 

[sharon sanders]

This will be problematic since the WHO needs the member states to pay for their operations.

 

[Pathfinder]

WHO wants sanctions against countries for mishandling epidemics

UN health agency wants to punish countries for mishandling epidemics like Ebola, but some experts call idea misguided

October 22, 2015 10:45AM ET
by Lisa De Bode
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World Health Organization Director Margaret Chan said she is investigating ways to reprimand countries that disobey the International Health Regulations (IHR) ? a set of rules adopted in 2005 and mandate that countries set up epidemiological surveillance systems, fund local health care infrastructure and restrict international trade and travel to affected regions deemed unsafe to the public, among other provisions.
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Rather than punish countries for noncompliance, Fidler said, the WHO should adopt incentives that would encourage countries to abide by the IHR. A chronic lack of resources underlies many countries? inability to manage epidemics, he noted.

?Ebola really exposed the lack of domestic public health capacity,? he said. Only about one or two doctors were available to care for every 100,000 people in Liberia, whose national health care system was ravaged during the country?s civil wars in the 1990s.

?However, the IHR involves no obligation for developed nations to provide resources to developing countries to scale up and improve their public health capabilities," Fidler said.

Increasing the flow of resources to those countries would go a longer way toward avoiding another Ebola outbreak than imposing sanctions, he added.
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http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/10/22/health-sanctions-against-countries-misguided.html