The World Health Report 2007: A Safer Future

The World Health Report 2007 - Global Public Health Security in the 21st Century: A Safer Future focuses on specific issues that threaten the collective health of people internationally such as: infectious disease epidemics; pandemics; toxic threats; and other acute health events as defined by the revised International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005, which come into force in June 2007.The report explains the purpose of IHR (2005), which is to prevent the spread of disease across international borders and to detect, assess and, if necessary, provide a coordinated response to events that may constitute a public health emergency of international concern. Infectious diseases are now spreading geographically much faster than at any time in history and, with an estimated 2.1 billion airline passengers travelling in 2006, an outbreak or epidemic in any one part of the world is only a few hours away from becoming an imminent threat somewhere else.The 2007 report also traces the evolution of public health security since the early days of plague and quarantine. It examines new threats to public health security today. It examines the threat of a human influenza pandemic. It shows how global public health security in the 21st century can be achieved.