What is the role of HHS under the new IHR?
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has assumed the lead role for the U.S. government in carrying out the requirements of the updated IHRs. The HHS Operations Center is the central body responsible for reporting events to the WHO Secretariat. Given the importance of potential zoonotic and/or epizootic diseases, and that these can also involve wildlife (including exotic animals, as in the monkeypox example), why isn’t the Department of Interior on the list of partners along with USDA (domestic animals)? Both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey could have important roles in identifying Public Health Emergencies of International Concern. The 20 Federal agencies currently identified as partners in the IHR implementation are those that were involved in the U.S. government’s final approval process of the IHR (2005). The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is responsible for coordinating the IHR-related communications across HHS and n
