International Health Regulations’ role in zoonosis prevention, and intersection with travel medicine

Abstract Trade interferes with the number and frequency of new species introduced and the possibility of these remaining and dispersing, impacting disease transmission dynamics. The International Health Regulations (IHR) establish the need to ensure veterinary care for animals affected by infectious diseases that pose a risk to public health through isolation, treatment and the demanding of other services. Concurrently, globalisation and increased travel have reshaped disease epidemiology, and new and old pathogens threaten to up-end the balance of travel. Two scoping reviews were conducted to explore the IHR’s role in animal monitoring and control and its interface with travel medicine. The scoping reviews followed Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) framework, utilising the PubMed, B-on, Biomedcentral, ScienceDirect, Medscape, Medline, World of Science, SCOPUS, and Google Scholar databases. English publications and grey literature were included. Regarding animal control, 21 articles were analysed. Most focused-on zoonosis prevention and addressed the international context and highlighted the international significance of applying the IHR for animal monitoring and control, addressing all core capacities. As for travel medicine, other 21 articles were included, highlighting applications in vaccine management, notably for COVID-19 and yellow fever. The IHR and its core capacities are essential in the monitoring and control of animals, with the One Health approach and effort sharing being the ideal method to prevent and respond to outbreaks and pandemics of zoonotic diseases. On the other hand, there is sparse literature about the integration of travel medicine within the IHR framework. Lack of standardisation in methods to evaluate the impact of the IHR is an issue. There’s a need for closer collaboration between clinical practice and legal frameworks to enhance global health preparedness.