Global Public Health Legal Responses to H1N1
Pandemics challenge the law and often highlight its strengths or expose its limits. The novel strain of influenza A (H1N1) virus that emerged in the spring of 2009 and rapidly spread around the globe was no exception. The H1N1 pandemic prompted the first significant application of a number of international legal and policy mechanisms that have been developed in the last decade to respond to this kind of event. Furthermore, it presented a considerable test for public health systems at all levels, from global to local.
Although initial predictions forecasting high morbidity and mortality from this virus overestimated its eventual impact, the human toll of the pandemic was nevertheless significant. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported approximately 1.5 million people were infected worldwide in 214 countries, resulting in over 25,000 confirmed deaths, but the actual health impact of the outbreak was certainly much higher.
Preface: Connecting Public Health Law, Practice, Policy, and Research
- 1. Lawyers, Guns, and Money
- 2. Making the Case for Laws that Improve Health
- 3. What Gets Measured, Gets Changed
- 4. Health in All Policies
- 5. The Potential of Shared Decision Making to Reduce Health Disparities
- 6. Environmental Public Health Law
- 7. State Boards of Health
- 8. Policy Issues in American Indian Health Governance
- 9. Global Public Health Legal Responses to H1N1
- 10. Public Health Preparedness Laws and Policies
- 11. Protecting the Mental Health of First Responders
- 12. Five Legal Preparedness Challenges for Responding to Future Public Health Emergencies
- 13. Implementing Health Reform at the State Level
- 14. Meaningful Use and Certification of Health Information Technology
- 15. Right to Health Litigation and HIV/AIDS Policy
- 16. The Role of Federal Preemption in Injury Prevention Litigation
- 17. Regulating Food Retail for Obesity Prevention
- 18. Pursuing Health Equity
- 19. The Michigan BioTrust for Health
- 20. Becoming the Standard