Public Health Emergency of International Concern

A Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) is the highest-level alarm the World Health Organization can raise. The designation comes from the International Health Regulations (2005), Article 1, which defines a PHEIC 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.' Declarations are made by the WHO Director-General after consulting an Emergency Committee of independent experts.

PHEICs have been declared eight times since the IHR (2005) framework came into force: 2009 H1N1 influenza, 2014 polio resurgence, 2014 West Africa Ebola, 2016 Zika virus, 2018-2020 Kivu Ebola (DRC), 2020 COVID-19, 2022 mpox, 2024 mpox (second declaration), and the active 2026 Bundibugyo Ebola declaration in DRC and Uganda. The designation does not directly compel any action by member states but signals to ministries of health, travel authorities, donor agencies, and the public that the event warrants escalation.

PHEICs end when the Emergency Committee advises the Director-General that the criteria are no longer met. For the 2020 COVID-19 PHEIC, that took until May 2023; for the 2014 West Africa Ebola event, until March 2016. The IHR explicitly contemplates that PHEIC declarations may be revisited and revised; they are not a single-event decision.