The duty to report disease outbreaks: of interest or value? Lessons from H5N1

Abstract

Since the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in 2003, it has been argued that there has been a substantial revision to the norm dictating the behaviour of states in the event of a disease outbreak. This article examines the evolution of the norm to ‘report and verify’ disease outbreaks and evaluates the extent to which this revised norm has begun to guide state behaviour. Examination of select East Asian countries affected by human infections of the H5N1 (avian influenza) virus strain reveals the need to further understand the mutually constitutive relationship between the value attached to prompt reporting against the capacity to report, and how states manage both in fulfilling their duty to report.

Keywords:

• World Health Organization
• East Asia
• avian influenza
• norm life cycle
• International Health Regulations
• state capacity

Acknowledgements

Dr Davies would like to acknowledge the helpful comments received from, especially, Alex Bellamy, Christian Enemark, Adam Kamradt-Scott, Simon Rushton, Jason Sharman and Jeremy Youde. Finally, Dr Davies is the recipient of an Australia Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow and this research was supported under Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects funding scheme (project number DP0878792).

Notes

Canadian government insisted on the alert being revoked in a week. By the end of May, Toronto experienced a second wave of SARS, raising questions about why WHO agreed to remove the alert on 30 April.

IHR Annex 2 includes broad list of outbreaks and events that may fulfil PHEIC criteria.

The first outbreak was isolated to poultry farms in Hong Kong in 1997.

Indonesian government may have been aware of the H5N1 infections since late 2003 (Masjkuri et al. 2006, p. 70).

In 2006 there were suspected local transmissions within family groups in Indonesia and Viet Nam. But there is controversy surrounding these claims and the evidence to support the theory was difficult to obtain.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sara E. Davies

Dr Sara E. Davies is a Senior Research Fellow and Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute and Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University, Australia. She has published numerous articles on global health security and international refugee law.