WHO Gets Unprecedented Powers on Global Health Threats

May 28, 2003
By Washington Post

WASHINGTON -- The World Health Organization, fending off an attempt by the United States to derail the measure, won broad new authority yesterday to fight international health threats like SARS.

The UN agency's governing body unanimously approved a resolution to allow WHO to intervene even when countries refuse to admit they are facing a crisis, and to send teams to investigate independently whether national authorities are responding effectively.

The changes, aimed at correcting the weaknesses exposed by the SARS epidemic, mark the first significant expansion of WHO's power in more than three decades.

The action frees WHO from having to wait until a country officially reports an international health threat before launching countermeasures, establishes the first global emergency epidemic alert network, and gives the agency the authority to launch on-the-ground inspections without a formal invitation.

''This allows, within a country, for WHO to do what needs to be done to help the rest of the world,'' Gro Harlem Brundtland, WHO's outgoing director general, told the World Health Assembly, which approved the measure by consensus.

The US delegation surprised WHO officials by asking to postpone action on the proposals until they can be considered as part of a broader set of negotiations. The Bush administration, which generally has been wary of granting UN agencies more authority, dropped the request after it failed to garner support.

''We're pleased,'' said David Heymann, director of WHO's communicable diseases program. ''It's giving WHO a much more relevant role.''

The International Health Regulations that outline WHO's authority and the responsibilities of its 192 member states required nations to report only three diseases -- smallpox, cholera, and the plague.

This story ran on page A13 of the Boston Globe on 5/28/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

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