DMiTEft NAÎiÔNS NATIONS UNIES
W O R L D H E A L T H
O R G A N I Z A T I O N ORGANISATION MONDIALE
DE LA SANTÉ A3-4/SR/68 14 May 1951
ORIGINAL; ENGLISH
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D R A F T R E S O L U T I O N S PRESENTED BY THE
SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL SANITARY REGULATIONS TO THE FOURTH WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY
The Special Committee on International Sanitary Regulations recommends to the Fourth World Health Assembly the adoption of the following resolutions:
Considering the need for full and precise understanding of the Regulations by the Health Administrations which are eventually to apply them,
The Fourth World Health Assembly,
INVITES the Director-General to prepare a Memorandum giving technical and legal explanations on the various chapters of WHO Regulations No. 2 so as to facilitate their understanding, adoption and application by National Health Administrations.
Terma of reference of committees to deal with the application of International Sanitary Regulations
Considering the need for continuous adaptation of the Regulations to changes in the distribution and trend of epidemic diseases, in the methods for their control and in the means of international transportation;
I
Explanatory Memorandum on Ш0 Regulations No. 2
II
Considering that.this adaptation requires systematic appraisal of the . application of the Regulations and their results;
Considering the need for an appropriate Committee to review annually the application of the Regulations and also consider and settle disputes arising out of this application;
The Fourth World Health Assembly, RESOLVES
1 . That the following procedure shall be applicable in the case of questions or disputes to which paragraph 1 of Article 112 (previously 107) *f the WHO
Regulations No. 2 applies:
(a) The Director-General shall deal with such questions or disputes and settle them as far as may be practicable;
(b) Where a settlement is not so reached, the Director-General shall refer the question or dispute to the appropriate committee or other organ of the Organization for examination and settlement;
2 . That the Executive Board be requested to entrust to the appropriate committee or committees the following duties connected with the International Sanitary
Regulations:
(a) A systematic and critical review of the Regulations and other relevant legislation, and the making of recommendations thereon;
(b) The preparation of additional regulations, where necessary, on diseases not covered in the Regulations;
(c) The submission pf recommendations as required on practices, methods, and procedures in connexion v/ith the subjects included in the Regulations.
3 . That the Director-General, in convening such committee or committees, be requested to take note of the need:
(a) For making available to them appropriate expert advice, inter alia, on special questions relating to epidemiology, port or airport sanitation, quarantine procedure, international law, shipping or aviation;
(b) For ensuring continuity of action;
(c) For providing to them the technical co-operation and advice of the appropriate WHO Expert Committees and Study Groups.
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Terms of Reference for a WHO Expert Committee to Deal with Epidemic Diseases
Considering that WHO Regulations No. 2 deal only with measures to be
applied to international traffic to prevent the spread of the six quarantinable diseases covered by these Regulations ;
Considering^ furthermore, that other communicable and epidemic diseases may, through international traffic, create grave danger to certain territories;
The Fourth World Health Assembly, REQUESTS the Executive Board
(1) to examine and report on the present arrangements and their possible improvement for the collection and analysis of epidemiological information in respect of all epidemic diseases and not only the six quarantinable diseases mentioned in the Regulations ;
(2) to study the ways and means for co-ordinating TOO activities as regards such epidemic diseases and, for this purpose, the modification of the terms of reference of the present Exnert Committee on International Epidemiology and Quarantine.
IV
Special Measures for the Protection of Isolated Communities
Whereas measures other than those specified in TOO Regulations No. 2 are needed to protect isolated communities into which the introduction of epidemic diseases other than the six quarantinable diseases may cause considerable morbidity and mortality;
Whereas such measures should be the object of careful study from the scientific and practical points of view;
The Fourth World Health Assembly,
REQUESTS the Executive Board to entrust such study to the appropriate WHO Committee, this Committee being requested to take into consideration the
following suggestions:
1 . Health administration should be permitted to decide the sanitary measures other than those specified in these Regulations to be taken for the protection of isolated communities into which the introduction of epidemic diseases other than the six quarantinable diseases may cause considerable loss of life, owing to the extreme receptiveness of their populations to such diseases ;
2 . Such measures should, however, be taken only in respect of such isolated communities situated in areas or territories which have been notified in advance by the health administration concerned to WHO and have been approved as such by the Organization.
3 . The Organization should notify all other health administrations of such approval.
V
Additional National Health and Sanitary Measures to Prevent the Spread of the Six Quarantinable Diseases Believing that
(a) the WHO Regulations No. 2 represent only part of the action required to remove the international threat of quarantinable diseases,
(b) parallel actiofr is equally necessary to remove insanitary conditions conducive to the existence of such diseases, especially in and around ports and airports,
(c) health administrations in improving sanitary conditions and in expanding their health and medical services, -especially in and around ports and airports, are thereby securing their own protection against the entry and establishment of quarantinable diseases,
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(d) territories with satisfactory sanitary conditions and efficient health and medical services may reduce quarantine measures against international traffic,
(e) the freest possible movement of international traffic is highly desirable in the interests of world economic and social, including health, progress ;
The Fourth World Health Assembly
1 . RECOMMENDS to all governments that they improve sanitary and environmental conditions, especially in and around ports and airports and, in particular, they
(i) eliminate and prevent the breeding of rodents, Aë'des mosquitoes and ectoparasites,
(ii) eliminate infection of cholera by providing, inter alia, pure water and food supplies, and services for the proper disposal of human wastes, (iii) raise the level of protection, by vaccination where appropriate or by
other means, against plague, cholera, yellow-fever, smallpox and typhus, (iv) relax, when necessary and health circumstances are satisfactory,
the application to their territories of appropriate Articles of the WHO Regulations N o . 2 .
2. REQUESTS the Regional Committees of the Organization to take early and continuous action to persuade Member States in their regions to adopt the recommendations in paragraph 1 above ;
3 . REQUESTS the Executive Board in its preparation of programmes and otherwise to give effect to the recommendations in paragraph 1 above.
VI
Hygiene and Sanitation of Airports
Considering that it is essential to protect the health of aircrews at all airports en route ;
Considering that an aircraft cannot with safety take off from any airport unless every member of the flight crew is physically fit;
Considering that it is necessary therefore to control at airports not
only the quarantinable diseases dealt with in the "WHO Regulations N o . 2 but also other diseases such as dysentery, food poisoning, gastro-enteritis, and malaria;
Considering that high standards of hygiene and sanitation should be applied at all international airports and direct transit areas, at least on the main trunk routes;
The Fourth World Health Assembly,
REQUESTS the Executive Board to set up a joint WHO/ICAO Committee on the Hygiene of Airports to orepare sanitation standards appropriate for airports and a draft International Convention or additional WHO regulations on this subject.
VII
Criteria for Determining the Limits of Yellow-Fever Endemic Zones
Considering that the definition of yellow-fever endemic zones, contained in the WHO Regulations No. 2, is based on the presence of Aedes aegypti and the persistence of the virus among jungle animals over long periods of time;
Considering also that, owing to vaccination campaigns and other causes, immunity in man to yellow-fever, as detected by the mouse protection test, is to be found beyond the limits of yellow-fever endemic zones as so defined;
The Fourth World Health Assembly,
INVITES the Executive Board and the Director-General to make the necessary arrangements for the study and definition of technical criteria required for the delineation of yellow-fever endemic zones as defined in YfflO Regulations N o . 2 .
VIII
Application of the WHO Regulations N o . 2 to non- metropolitan territories
Recognizing that a Member State, because of its constitutional requirements, may be unable, within the period specified in Article 106 of WHO Regulations
N o , 2 for rejection or reservation to arrange for the application of the
Regulations to all territories for whose international relations it is responsible, and may therefore find it necessary to postpone the application of the
Regulations to such territories by a declaration made under Article 22 of the Constitution of the Y/orld Health Organization;
The Fourth Vio rid Health Assembly,
RESOLVES that a declaration made for the above purposes shall not be considered as a reservation to which the provisions of article 107 of "Ш0 Regulations No. 2 apply.
