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medpundit |
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Wednesday, April 02, 2003As SARS spreads across the globe (Belgium reported its first case yesterday), many have been pointing their fingers at China, which has suppressed information about the illness after it first appeared there in November. The real problem is not how secretive China has been, but how ineffective the World Health Organization has been in creating and enforcing a public health policy suited for a global outbreak like this one. Since its founding by the United Nations in 1948, the agency has overseen the monitoring and reporting of illnesses — but its rules are binding only on its members. Its membership now includes 192 countries but excludes some nations that are not members of the United Nations, like Taiwan, which has recorded five cases of SARS. Moreover, the only diseases that members are required to report are yellow fever, plague and cholera. And if a jurisdiction declines to report, there are no legal consequences. What should we do to nations who fail to report their diseases? Hit them with economic sanctions, or invade them? The UN won’t even sanction military action against fascist dictators and rogue states with weapons of mass destruction who fail to comply with their disarmament resolutions. The op-ed goes on in a similar vein, lamenting the inability of the WHO to enforce any sort of international health policy. It reads like a plea for more WHO power. But the author also unwittingly points out why it would not be wise to give the WHO unlimited authority: ...but the agency's definition of a public health emergency is so broad — whether an illness is serious, unexpected, likely to spread internationally, and restrict travel or trade internationally — that it could apply to almost anything, or nothing. They’re doing the best job they can with the SARS epidemic, and it seems to be working, although imperfectly. I’d much rather have a spirit of cooperation among sovereign states than a dictatorial global public health regime. The appropriate role of the WHO is advisory. Each nation should be responsible for inacting their own public health measures within the constraints of their laws. Give the WHO unlimited powers, and you never know what could happen. Once an infectious epidemic has died down and things are quiet again, there’s always the danger that they’d turn their attention to noninfectious diseases (as is their want) and declare an obesity emergency or heart disease emergency - and confiscate our french, er, freedom fries. posted by Sydney on 4/02/2003 05:17:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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