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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >> The SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic started in the fall of 2002 in China, killing nearly 800 people worldwide, most of them in Asia, before subsiding the following summer. While its spread was prevented, it served as a wake-up call about the emerging threat of such infectious diseases, Simpson said.
These global concerns are very different from the international issues that motivated the founders of the United Nations to establish WHO after World War II, Simpson said.
"When WHO was created, like all the other United Nations agencies, people were very concerned about securing world peace and, as part of that, improving the health of people around the world," he said. "That a person could be in Singapore at 11 o'clock in the evening and then be in London the next day was an impossibility in 1948."
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As part of its new focus on cooperation between countries when it comes to health threats, WHO has revised its international regulations so nations can identify health problems as early as possible and seek the help they need from governments, other countries and the private sector. The regulations will become effective June 15, Simpson said.
"These regulations aren't about assigning blame but are in place to help any country that faces a disease. It is very important to have international support," Simpson said.
Scott Dowell is head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's global disease detection protection program. He said the new regulations will update what was a relatively informal system of reporting potentially serious outbreaks. They will also obligate countries to recognize their vulnerability to disease and respond quickly when threatened.
He pointed to West Nile Virus, which was thought of as "one of those exotic diseases" (it's commonly found in Africa, West Asia and the Middle East) that wouldn't affect the United States -- until it was first reported in the New York City area in 1999.
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