Washington, 16 April

US President Joe Biden's administration will help 50 countries identify and respond to infectious diseases, with the goal of preventing pandemics like the COVID-19 outbreak that suddenly halted normal life around the globe in 2020.

US government officials will offer support in the countries, most of them located in Africa and Asia, to develop better testing, surveillance, communication and preparedness for such outbreaks in those countries. The strategy will help “prevent, detect and effectively respond to biological threats wherever they emerge,” Biden said in a statement Tuesday.

The Global Health Security Strategy, the president said, aims to protect people worldwide and "will make the United States stronger, safer, and healthier than ever before at this critical moment”.

The announcement about the strategy comes as countries have struggled to meet a worldwide accord on responses to future pandemics. Four years after the coronavirus pandemic, the prospects of a pandemic treaty signed by all 194 of the World Health Organisation's members are flailing.

The Biden administration plans to move forward with its new strategy to prepare the world for the next pandemic, regardless of whether a treaty is hammered out or not, a senior administration official told reporters on Monday.

The US programme will rely on several government agencies — including the US State Department, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Health and Human Services and the US Agency for International Development, or USAID — to help countries refine their infectious disease response.

Congo is one country where work has already begun. The US government is helping Congo with its response to an mpox virus outbreak, including with immunisations. Mpox, a virus that's in the same family as the one that causes smallpox, creates painful skin lesions. The World Health Organisation declared mpox a global emergency in 2022, and there have been more than 91,000 cases spanning across 100 countries to date.

The White House on Tuesday released a website with the names of the countries that are participating in the program. Biden officials are seeking to get 100 countries signed onto the program by the end of the year.

The US has devoted billions of dollars, including money raised from private donations, to the effort. Biden, a Democrat, is asking for USD 1.2 billion for global health safety efforts in his yearly budget proposal to Congress.