As part of the initiative, the United States will offer support and expertise aimed at boosting preparedness, detection and response to emerging outbreaks. The 50 partners, which are least-developed countries, are largely concentrated in nations across Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East, such as:

• Benin, Ethiopia and Kenya in sub-Saharan Africa;
• Bangladesh, India and Nepal in Asia; and
• Guatemala, Haiti and Jamaica in Central and South America.

The White House initiative may help close a major gap in international pandemic preparedness, because attempts to have all 194 member states of the World Health Organization sign a pandemic treaty have stalled. According to the administration, the 2024 U.S. Global Health Security Strategy sets out three goals:

• Strengthen global health security strategies through bilateral partnerships.The most effective way to mitigate the impact of health security threats is to prevent, detect and contain them at their source. The strategy focuses on working with countries around the world to ensure they are better able to prevent, detect and respond to global health security threats
• Catalyze political commitment, financing and leadership to achieve health security. The United States works with partners to catalyze and sustain political leadership, commitment and financing in health security at local, national, regional and global levels.
• Increase linkages between health security and complementary programs to maximize impact. The United States is committed to better maximizing linkages between global health security programs and other health, development and security programs. Building stronger relationships between these programs will lead to more sustainability, make better use of existing resources and drive better outcomes.

Related: U.S. health system ranks last among healthy nations

"Global health security is national security, and CDC is proud to contribute its expertise, investments and rapid response to protect the health and safety of the American people and the world," said Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "CDC's decades of global health investments, training and scientific diplomacy strengthen global capacity in labs, data, emergency response and the public health workforce."