Open AccessGlobal health Initiatives as a ‘Drunken Boat’: The Meningitis Vaccines Project Case Study
Author(s) -
Oumy Thiongane
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
medicine anthropology theory
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2405-691X
DOI - 10.17157/mat.8.1.5228
Subject(s) - economic shortage , general partnership , outbreak , public health , vaccination , infectious disease (medical specialty) , disease control , economic growth , medicine , political science , virology , disease , economics , government (linguistics) , linguistics , philosophy , nursing , pathology , law
Based on an analysis of the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP), a public-private partnership (PPP) set up to introduce the MenAfriVac® vaccine in African countries, this article examines the failures of an accelerated disease control programme that targeted a highly infectious disease. I argue that the integration of MenAfriVac® into the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Expanded Programme on Immunisation had the effect of reinforcing inequalities in access, in particular during epidemic emergencies. I will also show how vaccine shortages during an outbreak in Niger led to political tensions and to the emergence of a parallel and unregulated ‘black market’ of vaccines.