Global Public Health Legal Responses to H1N1

World Health Organization, Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 - update 115, available at <http://www.who.int/csr/don/2010_08_27/en/index.html> (last visited November 19, 2010). The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, estimate that somewhere between 43 million and 89 million cases of H1N1 influenza occurred in the United States during the pandemic leading to an estimated 8,870 to ∼18,300 deaths. See “Updated CDC Estimates of 2009 H1N1 Influenza Cases, Hospitalizations and Deaths in the United States, April 2009 - April 10, 2010,” available at <http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/estimates_2009_h1n1.htm> (last visited November 19, 2010).

The World Health Organization has come under scrutiny by the Council of Europe and others on the basis of its rapid pandemic declaration and the lack of transparency on its advisory committee. See Council of Europe, Parliamentary Assembly, Resolution 1749, “The Handling of the H1N1 Pandemic: More Transparency Needed” (2010); Cohen D. Carter P. , “WHO and the Pandemic Flu ‘Conspiracies,’” BMJ 340 (2010): 2912.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Update: Novel Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Infection—Mexico, March - May 2009,” MMWR: Morbidity Morality Weekly Report 58, no. 21 (June 5, 2009): 585–589, at 585, available at <http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5821a2.htm> (last visited November 19, 2010).

World Health Organization, “Influenza-Like Illness in the United States and Mexico,” April 24, 2009, available at <http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_04_24/en/index.html> (last visited November 19, 2010).

Science Daily, Swine Flu Data ‘Very Consistent’ With Early Stages of A Pandemic, May 12, 2009, available at <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090511151620.htm> (last visited November 19, 2010).

Medical News Today, Critical Illness from 2009 H1N1 in Mexico Associated with High Fatality Rate, October 12, 2009, available at <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/167063.php> (last visited November 19, 2010).

Domínguez-Cherit G. , “Critically Ill Patients with 2009 Influenza A(H1N1) in Mexico,” JAMA 302, no. 17 (2009): 1880–1887; Perez-Padilla R. , “Pneumonia and Respiratory Failure from Swine-Origin Influenza A (H1N1) in Mexico,” New England Journal of Medicine 361, no. 7 (2009): 680–689; Novel Swine-Origin Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Investigation Team, “Emergence of a Novel Swine-Origin Influenza A (H1N1) Virus in Humans,” New England Journal of Medicine 360, no. 25 (2009): 2605–2615.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Outbreak of Swine-Origin Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Infection — Mexico, March-April 2009,” MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 58 (Dispatch) (April 30, 2009): 1–3, at 1, available at <http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm58d0430a2.htm> (last visited November 19, 2010). (The statistics, information, and figure are from this source).

See World Health Organization, supra note 4.

Rodriquez O. R. , “Patient Zero? Mom of First Confirmed Case Talks,” MSNBC, April 28, 2009, available at <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30461857/> (last visited November 19, 2010); France 24, “The Origin of Influenza A (H1N1)?” May 1, 2009, available at <http://observers.france24.com/en/content/20090501-origin-h1n1-virus-la-gloria-smithfield-pork-pig-farm-contamination> (last visited November 19, 2010). (Many people worked in and around Mexico City and may have transmitted the virus to the capital. The Granjas Carroll de Mexico farm produces about 950,000 pigs a year and has been criticized by the local population for contamination of air and water in the area).

National Hog Farmer, Mexican Government Clears Smithfield, May 11, 2009, available at <http://nationalhogfarmer.com/health-diseases/news/0511-smithfield-not-H1N1-cause/> (last visited November 19, 2010).

Walsh B. , “H1N1 Virus: The First Legal Action Targets a Pig Farm,” Time Magazine, May 15, 2009, available at <http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1898977,00.html> (last visited October 12, 2010). See also, Pereda A. , “Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 Outbreak on Pig Farm, Argentina,” Emerging Infectious Diseases 16, no. 2 (February 2010), available at <http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/16/2/304.htm> (last visited November 19, 2010) (noting that a pig farm in Argentina was found to be a major source of influenza A (H1N1) infection in that country).

International Health Regulations (2005) , 2nd ed. (Geneva: World Health Organization, 2008), available at <http://www.who.int/ihr/9789241596664/en/index.html> (last visited November 19, 2010).

World Health Organization, “Statement by WHO Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan: Swine influenza. April 25, 2009,” available at <http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2009/h1n1_20090425/en/index.html> (last visited November 19, 2010); Katz R. Fischer J. , “The Revised International Health Regulations: A Framework for Global Pandemic Response,” Global Health Governance 3, no. 2 (2010): 1–18; Gostin L. O. , “Influenza A (H1N1) and Pandemic Preparedness under the Rule of International Law,” JAMA 301, no. 22 (2009): 2376–2378.

World Health Organization, WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan, World Now at the Start of 2009 Influenza Pandemic , Statement to the Press, June 11, 2009, available at <http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2009/h1n1_pandemic_phase6_20090611/en/index.html> (last visited November 19, 2010)

See Katz Fischer , supra note 15; Gostin , supra note 15.

See Katz Fischer , supra note 15; Fidler D. P. , “H1N1 after Action Review: Learning from the Unexpected, the Success and the Fear,” Future Microbiology 4, no. 7 (2009): 767–769.

See Katz Fischer , supra note 15; Gostin , supra note 15; Fidler , supra note 18.

World Health Organization, Transcript of Press Briefing with Dr. Harvey Fineberg, Chair, International Health Regulations Review Committee (September 29, 2010), available at <http://www.who.int/mediacentre/multimedia/pc_transcript_30_september_10_fineberg.pdf> (last visited November 19, 2010); Schnirring L. , “WHO pandemic review group concludes third session,” CIDRAP (September 29, 2010), available at <http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/swine-flu/news/sep2910review.html> (last visited November 19, 2010).

GISN was established in 1952 and is the chief mechanism through which the 104 WHO member states share influenza strains with the world community so that those strains can be used to produce vaccine. See WHO, “Global Influenza Virological Surveillance,” available at <http://www.who.int/csr/disease/influenza/influenzanetwork/en/index.html> (last visited November 19, 2010).

Vezzani S. , “Preliminary Remarks on the Envisaged World Health Organization Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework for the Sharing of Viruses and Access to Vaccines and Other Benefits,” Journal of World Intellectual Property 13, no. 6 (2010): 675–696.

Sedyaningsih E. R. , “Towards Mutual Trust, Transparency and Equity in Virus Sharing Mechanism: The Avian Influenza Case of Indonesia,” Annals Academy of Medicine Singapore 37 (2008): 482; Fidler D. P. , “Negotiating Equitable Access to Influenza Vaccines,” PLoS Medicine 7, no. 5 (2010); Enserink M. , “The Challenge of Getting Swine Flu Vaccine to Poor Nations,” Science Insider, November 3, 2009 (interview with Kieny Marie-Paule , head of WHO's Initiative for Vaccine Research), available at <http://news.sciencemag.org/science-insider/2009/11/the-challenge-o.html> (last visited November 19, 2010).

Khoon C. C. , “Equitable Access to Pandemic Flu Vaccines,” Third World Network (March 31, 2010), available at <http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/health.info/2010/health20100303.htm> (last visited November 19, 2010); see id. (Enserink); Kaiser Henry J. Family Foundation, “US Wont Donate H1N1 Vaccine To Developing Countries Until At-Risk' Americans Receive Vaccine,” Medical News Today, October 30, 2009, available at <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169283.php> (last visited November 19, 2010).

PCAST, Report to the President on Reengineering the Influenza Vaccine Production Enterprise to Meet the Challenges of Pandemic Influenza 21–23 (August 2010); UN and World Bank, Animal and Pandemic Influenza: A Framework for Sustaining Momentum, Chapter 3 (July 2010).