Perspectives

Rethinking the International Response System to Global Health Threats: Strengthening International Collaboration to Ensure Vaccine Equity and Combat Vaccination Hesitancy

Authors: Ramin Walter Parsa-Parsi, MD, MPH

Abstract

At least 9 million people died waiting for the price of antiretroviral therapy to become more affordable to them as the world faced a global outbreak of a new and devastating virus 4 decades ago: the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.1 In the early response to this global epidemic, newly developed drugs provided hope after years of loss and devastation. These treatments remained out of reach for impoverished countries and communities, however, even as well-off countries gained access to lifesaving medications that transformed HIV from a death sentence to a treatable, chronic disease. Generic drug production and the competition that resulted finally reduced the price of the antiviral drugs by 99%, thereby saving millions of lives.2
Posted in: Infectious Disease146

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