Open Access News Health & Social Care Less talk, more action on medical countermeasures October 21, 2024 image: ©Jacob Wackerhausen | iStock Dr Ayoade Alakija, humanitarian leader, WHO Special Envoy for the ACT-Accelerator, Chair of FIND and Co-Chair of the G7 Impact Investment Initiative on Global Health, outlines the negative effects of vaccine nationalism and emphasizes the importance of countries collaborating to enhance preparedness and medical countermeasures in the face of public health threats Here we are again. Transmission of a virus with a significant fatality rate has spread to all global regions and a PHEIC has been declared. This time, however, the virus has been known for over 50 years and has been active in Africa for decades.
While vaccine nationalism is what grabbed our attention during COVID-19, the global health world must broaden the focus beyond a fixation on vaccination development as the silver bullet for pandemic prevention and response. In the same way that the spread of HIV-AIDs has been curtailed through appropriate non- pharmaceutical interventions such as testing, public health messaging and community engagement, so too are these ‘public health 101’ interventions a far more cost-effective means of stopping the transmission of Mpox. Further, we need health systems strengthening at the community level and regional self-reliance – the ability to develop and manufacture medical countermeasures which are appropriate for low- resource settings a.