International Sanitary Conferences
The International Sanitary Conferences were a series of 14 international meetings held in response to growing concerns about human disease epidemics. The first of the Sanitary Conferences was organized by the French Government in 1851 to standardize international quarantine regulations against the spread of cholera, plague, and yellow fever. In total 14 conferences took place from 1851 to 1938; the conferences played a major role in the formation of the
Background
Efforts by governments to control disease eruptions trace their origins to the mid-fourteenth century. During this time period, the city-state of Venice (considered to be the
In 1834, by appointment from the
Chronology
# | Venue | Year | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Paris | 1851 | The pioneer movement; adopts a draft Sanitary Convention and draft International Sanitary Regulations |
2 | Paris | 1859 | Indecision time. |
3 | Istanbul | 1866 | Discussion and common agreement on the propagation cause of cholera. |
4 | Vienna | 1874 | |
5 | Washington | 1881 | First conference in which the United States participated.[3]: 125 |
6 | Rome | 1885 | |
7 | Venice | 1892 | The first International Sanitary Convention adopted.
|
8 | Dresden | 1893 | |
9 | Paris | 1894 | |
10 | Venice | 1897 | |
11 | Paris | 1903 | Chaired by Camille Barrère |
12 | Paris | 1911–1912 | Chaired by Barrère |
13 | Paris | 1926 | Adoption of the International Maritime Sanitary Convention; Chaired by Barrère |
14 | Paris | 1938 |
Paris, 1851
The first International Sanitary Conference opened in Paris on July 23, 1851. A total of twelve countries participated including Austria, Great Britain, Greece, Portugal, Russia, Spain, France, Ottoman Empire, and the four Italian Powers of Papal States, Sardinia, Tuscany, and the Two Sicilies, each country being represented by a pair of a physician and a diplomat.[4]
The Conference revolved around the question of whether or not cholera should be subject to quarantine regulations. The Papal States, Tuscany, the Two Sicilies, Spanish, Greek, and Tuscan delegates supported quarantine measures against cholera, with Sardinia, Austria, Britain, and France opposing quarantine measures.[4]
The Austrian medical delegate, G. M. Menis, along with John Sutherland, the British medical delegate, and Anthony Perrier, the British diplomatic delegate, were most vocal against quarantine measures. The Spanish medical delegate, Pedro F. Monlau (es), and the Russian medical delegate, Carlos O. R. Rosenberger, were in the opposite camp.[4]
The Conference participants agreed on a draft Sanitary Convention and annexed draft International Sanitary Regulations consisting of 137 articles.[4]
Paris, 1859
The second International Sanitary Conference opened in Paris on April 9, 1859. Except the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, all twelve countries of the first Conference were present.[5] The conference, which lasted for five months, resulted in Austria, France, Great Britain, the Papal States, Portugal, Russia, Sardinia, and Spain signing the slightly amended "draft convention" (itself a combination of the convention and the annexed international sanitary regulations agreed on the first conference). Greece and Turkey abstained.[6]
Constantinople, 1866
The third International Sanitary Conference opened in
Vienna, 1874
The fourth International Sanitary Conference opened in Vienna on 1 July 1874.[citation needed]
Washington, 1881
The fifth International Sanitary Conference in Washington, DC, was the first conference in which the United States participated.[3]
Rome, 1885
The sixth International Sanitary Conference opened in Rome on 20 May 1885 by the Italian government as a result of the reappearance of cholera in Egypt in 1883.[citation needed]
Venice, 1892
The seventh International Sanitary Conference in Venice was the occasion for the adoption of the first International Sanitary Convention.[citation needed]
Dresden, 1893
The eighth International Sanitary Conference opened in Dresden on 11 March 1893 under the initiative of the Austria-Hungarian government with nineteen European countries as participants.[citation needed]
Paris, 1894
The ninth International Sanitary Conference opened in Paris on 7 February 1894 with France as its convener and sixteen countries as participants.[citation needed]
Venice, 1897
The tenth International Sanitary Conference opened in Venice on 16 February 1897 with Austria-Hungary as its proposer and was the first such conference concerned exclusively with plague. In 1907 the
Paris, 1903
The eleventh International Sanitary Conference met in Paris from 10 October to 3 December 1903.[citation needed]
Rome, 1907
There was no Conference as such in 1907, however, 11 countries met in Rome to adopt an Arrangement establishing the
Paris, 1911–1912
The twelfth International Sanitary Conference opened in Paris on 7 November 1911 and closed on 17 January 1912 with 41 countries being represented. This was the first conference to be held after the creation of the
Paris, 1926
The thirteenth International Sanitary Conference was held in Paris from 10 May to 21 June 1926 with over 50 sovereign states as participants.[citation needed]
The Hague, 1933
There was no conference in 1933, but in The Hague representatives of various countries signed the International Sanitary Convention for Aerial Navigation, which went into force on 1 August 1935.[citation needed]
Paris, 1938
The fourteenth and last International Sanitary Conference was convened by the French Government at the instigation of Egypt on 28 October 1938 with representatives of almost 50 countries as participants.
Additional events
- 1907: Rome Arrangement creating the International Office of Public Hygiene (OIHP)
- 1914 - 1918: World War I
- 1918-1920: Great Influenza Pandemic
- 1933: Adoption of the International Sanitary Convention for Aerial Navigation (1933)
- 1939 - 1945: World War II
- 1944: Amendment of the 1926 International Maritime Sanitary Convention and the 1933 International Sanitary Convention for Aerial Navigation.International Certificate of Vaccination against Smallpox.[9]
- 1948: Formation of the World Health Organization
- 1951: 4th World Health Assembly adopted the International Sanitary Regulations. Quarantinable diseases included cholera, yellow fever, plague, smallpox, relapsing fever, typhoid.
- 1969: WHO revises the International Sanitary Regulations to become the International Health Regulations. The revised IHR focused on 4 quarantinable diseases - cholera, yellow fever, plague and smallpox.
- 1981: With successful eradication of smallpox, quarantinable diseases revised to cholera, yellow fever and plague.
After World War II
The
In 1969, the ISR were revised and renamed the International Health Regulations.[11]
See also
Notes
- ^ (Norman Howard-Jones 1974, p. 8)
- ^ (Norman Howard-Jones 1974, p. 9)
- ^ PMID 24412079.
- ^ a b c d (Norman Howard-Jones 1974, pp. 10–14)
- ^ The outbreak of the Franco-Austrian War of 1859 prompted the Austrian delegate to withdraw on 30 April on but he later attended between 20-30 August
- ^ (Norman Howard-Jones 1974, pp. 15–20)
- ^ ISBN 9241560584.
- PMID 19993379.
- ISBN 92-4-156110-6. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
- ^ Howard-Jone, Norman (1975) "The scientific background of the International Sanitary Conferences". World Health Organization; Geneva, p. 13.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-84593-578-8.
- References
Norman Howard-Jones (1974). The scientific background of the International Sanitary Conferences, 1851-1938 (PDF). World Health Organization.