Coordination and cooperation between countries on matters of global health (or international health, as it was then known) have existed well into the past as well. Some of the earliest concerns had to do with those related to spread of infectious diseases. Over a period this led to the adoption of some of the first international regulations related to health, such as quarantine measures and man...

participation in clinical trials can be useful for the health of a person, in who it is conducted, but it does not have to be - it can even be harmful. therefore, primary motive to accept such risk is humanity and human wish to contribute to the progress of medicine; this is expressed by personal consent. the consent, however, can be an expression of personal humanity, and for this, it is not l...

Threats posed by new, emerging or re-emerging communicable diseases are taking a global dimension, to which the World Health Organization (WHO) Secretariat has been responding with determination since 1995. Key to the global strategy for tackling epidemics across borders is the concept of global public health surveillance, which has been expanded and formalized by WHO and its technical partners...