Drawing on the more than a quarter-century as a global leader of the fight to end AIDS as a public health threat, UNAIDS offers the following lessons learned for strengthening the current bureau text of the Pandemic Accord:.
The current draft could be amended to incorporate much clearer, stronger language on the obligations of high-income countries HICs to ensure worldwide access to pandemic products and to proactively provide financial and technical support to enable pandemic responses in low- and middle-income countries LMICs.
It could also have text that commits all countries to prioritise health and medical research. With respect to equitable access to pandemic-related products, the bureau draft uses language that suggests that recommended actions are advisory rather than obligatory.
Although the draft specifies obligations among LMICs for actions pertaining to surveillance and the timely sharing of pathogens and data, the draft should be revised to commit Member States to ensure equitable access, including sharing the benefits and profits from the sale of these pathogens. Draw lessons from the Ebola where pathogens from Africa were shared but the medicines were stockpiled in the north leaving people in Africa waiting for charitable donations.
The Accord should build on the precedence of the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness agreement PIP which facilitates sharing of pathogens and benefits both in terms of vaccines and profit. As the effects of epidemics are felt most heavily in poor and vulnerable populations, countries that are home to these populations require additional assistance.
