The new regulations, along with the experience in controlling severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), should ease the way for cooperation should there be an influenza pandemic, says Dr. David Heymann, executive director for communicable diseases at WHO.
"SARS showed us that countries are willing to give up just a little bit of their sovereignty for the good of the world."
The WHO is urging affected countries to report H5N1 outbreaks right away and to get help in controlling them.
Under previous rules, WHO member states only had to report cases of cholera, plague and yellow fever. Now they must report "all events that may constitute a public health emergency of international concern."
