Human Rights and Fighting Infectious Disease: Necessities and Challenges

Despite vast advances in the fields of science and medicine, numbers show that infectious disease is still a serious threat to global health. Since, microbes know no boundaries, fighting infectious disease has long been a subject of international cooperation between States. But the question remains that how fighting infectious disease can relate to human rights? There exists a twofold relationship: On one hand, States have responsibility to protect, respect and enforce the right to health, therefore they are obligated to take necessary actions to prevent and control infectious disease. On the other hand, securitization of this fight caused mainly by emerging and re-emerging infectious disease, globalization and its affects on people's life style has resulted in human rights breaches while fighting these diseases. Nevertheless, it is argued that international law is capable of striking a balance between these two apparent contradictory faces of the global fight against infectious disease.