International sanitary conferences

The International Sanitary Conferences were a series of 14 conferences, the first of them organized by the then 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 World Health Organization in 1948.

The outbreak of the Second cholera pandemic in 1829, prompted European Governments to appoint medical missions to investigate the causes of the epidemic. Among others, the Royal Academy of Medicine of Paris in June 1831, sent Auguste Gérardin () and Paul Gaimard on medical mission to Russia, Prussia, and Austria.

Later the Minister of Commerce of France, appointed the Secretary of the Conseil supérieur de la santé, P. de. Ségur-Dupeyron with the task of creating a report on the sanitary regulations of the Mediterranean countries. The report published in 1834, pointed to the differing quarantine requirements among the countries, and proposed to convene an international conference to standardise quarantine requirements against exotic diseases.

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, Turkey 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.

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