Comparative analysis of national legislation in support of the revised international health regulations: potential models for implementation in the United States.

In 2005, the World Health Organization adopted the revised International Health Regulations, or IHR (2005), to establish obligations for detecting and responding to public health emergencies of international concern. The success of the IHR (2005) rests on the ability of states to implement the objectives and to execute the regulations in a legal and politically acceptable manner. Implementation of the IHR (2005) may be challenging for federalist nations, where most public health regulatory power lies in local rather than in national governments. We examine the implementation strategies of 4 nations: Australia, Canada, Germany, and India. The methods currently being considered by these nations for executing the IHR (2005) are potentially applicable models for the United States to consider.