World Health Assembly reaches landmark deal on International Health Regulations

The World Health Assembly (WHA) reached what it describes as an ‘historic’ agreement on revisions to the International Health Regulations (IHR), but a Pandemic Agreement proved out of reach.

“The world made history at the World Health Assembly negotiations. After two years of negotiations, it has adopted a strong package of amendments based on the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organisation Director-General, said on  Saturday (1 June). 

The amendments aim to improve countries’ ability to respond to future outbreaks and pandemics by strengthening their own national capacities, and coordination on disease surveillance, information sharing and responses.