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 Office international d'hygiène publique before World War II, and the World Health Organization in 1948. 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 first international center of commerce) was first to apply quarantine procedures to protect their population and territory against plague. However, it was not until the Second cholera pandemic in 1829, that European Governments would appoint medical missions to investigate the cause of an 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. In 1834, by appointment from the Minister of Commerce, the Secretary of the Conseil supérieur de la santé, P. de. Ségur-Dupeyron, was task with creating a report on the sanitary regulations of Mediterranean countries. This report, called attention to numerous differing quarantine requirements among countries and to resulting unnecessary confusion. This document and over 15 years of continued perseverance by the French Government ultimately led to convening an international conference to standardise quarantine requirements against exotic diseases; the International Sanitary Conferences - 1851-1938. Chronology 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. 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. 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