The authors analyze the content of the concept of “health protection” in international law, taking into account the fundamental importance of the right to health in the system of basic human rights. There is a lack of a uniform interpretation of this term, as well as a difference in the approaches to its understanding in the most important regulatory legal acts, which creates certain difficulties for law enforcement practice. In addition, the interpretation of the concept of “health protection”, according to the authors, is of decisive importance in the process of legal consolidation of the fundamental human right in the field of health, and also determines the meaning of the entire health care of states and their cooperation in this area.