When Vaccines Are Gone

By Gary Selnow, Ph.D., and Allison Kozicharow; Edited by Elizabeth Fine

Background

Recently, we reported on WiRED International’s efforts to equip community health workers (CHWs) to support HIV/AIDS patients deprived of antiretrovirals (ARVs) due to abrupt U.S. government funding cuts to USAID. These life-saving medications, though inexpensive, are now tragically inaccessible, soon leading to widespread suffering and death in underserved regions. In response, WiRED, a health education organization, swiftly developed a training module for treatment protocols, providing CHWs with tools to manage the devastating symptoms as patients succumb to AIDS.

When Vaccines Are Gone

The U.S. administration has abruptly halted funding for overseas vaccine programs, jeopardizing protection against diseases such as malaria, mpox and polio (see sidebar for more details). This decision dismantles U.S. support for Gavi, an international alliance that has delivered crucial vaccines to the world’s poorest nations since 2000. Coupled with U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), this leaves vulnerable populations without essential intervention tools to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

WiRED’s Urgent Response

While WiRED, like other small NGOs, lacks the resources to replace the lost U.S. funding, we are committed to mitigating the consequences of vaccine shortages. Just as we did with the recent loss of ARVs due to U.S. budget cuts, we are preparing our CHWs to address the health crises resulting from the lack of vaccines.

Leveraging our existing collection of more than 30 infectious disease training modules within our Continuing Medical Education (CME) program, we will prioritize topics relevant to the immediate impact of the vaccine withdrawal. This ensures that CHWs are prepared with critical information during community visits and Health Screening Clinics. Each module provides comprehensive details on disease signs, symptoms, prevention, diagnosis and treatment. CHWs will stress measures indivdiuals can take to minimize the risk of infection. This often is referred to as behavioral prevention.

After their training refreshers, our CHWs will:

• Conduct widespread prevention education in public spaces, workplaces, schools and places of worship.
• Educate teachers, officials and community leaders about disease symptoms and reporting procedures.
• Maintain heightened vigilance during their regular rounds in the communities and the  Health Screening Clinics to identify potential cases.

With the withdrawal of U.S. financial support for Gavi, vaccines essential to healthcare in Africa are most likely to strike hardest at the following diseases. Accordingly, we anticipate focusing additional CHW training on modules that address these specific illnesses: