Public health round-up

Dr Margaret Chan, WHO DirectorGeneral, will convene the first meeting of the newly formed International Health Regulations (IHR) Review Committee on the Ebola outbreak 24 to 25 August in Geneva. The Review Committee, comprising experts from WHO Member States, will discuss recommendations by the Ebola Interim Assessment Panel in its final report, released on 7 July, on the response by WHO and the international humanitarian system to the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The IHR (2005) are rules on how WHO’s Member States should handle disease outbreaks and other health emergencies. The Committee will assess how effective the regulations have been during the current Ebola outbreak and the extent to which 2011 recommendations, made by the IHR Review Committee on the 2009 influenza pandemic, have been implemented. In its report, the Ebola Interim Assessment Panel called for significant changes at all levels of the Organization and in Member States, so that WHO could “better perform its core function of protecting global health”. The panel recommended several measures, including a 5% increase in WHO’s regular budget and the establishment of a new WHO Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response, integrating the outbreak control and humanitarian areas of work that are currently separate. The panel called on WHO’s Member States and partners to contribute immediately to a contingency fund for outbreak response, with a target of US$ 100 million. A WHO statement said: “WHO is already moving forward on some of the panel’s recommendations including the development of the global health emergency workforce and the contingency fund to ensure the necessary resources are available to mount an initial response.” http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ ebola/panel-to-assess-response/ Tobacco taxes