PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY OF INTERNATIONAL CONCERN (PHEIC)

About:

• Criteria followed by WHO to declare PHEIC: A public health emergency is defined as “an extraordinary event which is determined:
  • to constitute a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease; and
    
    
  • to potentially require a coordinated international response”.
    
    
  
  
  
• Declared by whom: The responsibility of declaring an event as an emergency lies with the Director-General of the WHO.
  
  
• Past incidence: In the past decade, WHO has declared public health emergencies for outbreaks including swine flu, polio and Ebola.
  
  
• Implications of a PHEIC being declared: Declaring a PHEIC may lead to restrictions on travel and trade for the host country, which in the case of the coronavirus is China.