Vaccines delivered to Africa through the global access system to COVID-19 (COVAX) vaccines, supported by the World Health Organization, will not be enough to contain the pandemic, warned Africa CDC, the African Union’s public health body. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that so far, less than 2% of global vaccinations have been given on the continent.
Delivery problems and the feeling of vaccine nationalism in richer countries partly explain this shortcoming. However, logistical problems are also to blame, and inefficient management and failures to prioritize high-risk groups have made matters worse.
“This is exacerbated by reports of possible side effects of the vaccine and online misinformation campaigns on the Internet,” said Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi, who heads the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) in Nairobi, one of the leading institutions. public health in Africa.
Which countries come first?
Kyobutungi said African countries are generally lagging behind. Although disappointing, the epidemiologist said it was not a big surprise.
“You can put African countries in three categories,” she said. “There are those who have vaccinated about 2% – Senegal, Rwanda, Ghana. And then we have Kenya, which started slowly but has grown. But Kenya still has less than 1%. And then there are countries like Uganda and Nigeria, which it has less than 0.5%. Each country seems to be struggling with different things. “
Each country faces different challenges, she said. However, a major problem remains that poorer countries still have less access to vaccine doses.
“Kenya has received one million doses and distributed them across the country, but in Nairobi people are returning because they do not have enough,” she said, noting that the country should have initially received about 1.5 million doses. by now. To date, the country has failed to vaccinate high-priority groups, such as health officials and teachers.
Vaccine distribution is another issue, Kyobutungi said. She said Kenya has tried to distribute vaccine doses fairly in all its regions, but has failed because urban centers have much better infrastructure and organizational networks than rural areas. This meant that not all available doses were used in rural areas, while demand in the capital Nairobi far exceeded supply.
Zimbabwe began vaccination with China’s Sinopharm vaccine in February
Rwanda, unlike Kenya, quickly anticipated the problem and focused the launch of vaccination on urban centers. “Rwanda has a very wide list of priority groups,” Kyobutungi said. “It included health workers, but in Kigali they vaccinated prisoners, they vaccinated Uber drivers, they vaccinated motorcyclists, they vaccinated market people and the elderly. Outside Kigali they focused on health workers. With this tactics have managed to use all doses in a short time. “
AstraZeneca leads the way in Africa
The AstraZeneca vaccine is most commonly given in Africa. The reason is simple: it is relatively inexpensive and – unlike other vaccines – easy to store, as it does not need to be refrigerated at very low temperatures.
Reports of potential side effects, including rare cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, or blood clots in the veins draining blood from the brain, have sparked heated debate in Africa. But most countries have decided to follow WHO’s advice to continue administering the AstraZeneca vaccine. These include Nigeria. The country of more than 200 million has not experienced vaccine-related deaths or blood clots, said Faisal Shuaib of Nigeria’s National Primary Health Development Agency.
Meanwhile, South Africa has stopped administering AstraZeneca because it appears to be ineffective against the coronavirus variant in South Africa. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was considered a viable alternative until reports of blood clots in the United States. This means that the launch of vaccination in South Africa has now been completely suspended.
The vaccines have been transported to African countries by different routes through various initiatives, such as COVAX. The global initiative was created to give all countries equal and equitable access to vaccines. However, the African Union and individual African governments have taken steps to get doses beyond these initiatives, while a number of European countries, China, Russia and India, have donated vaccines to certain countries.
Kyobutungi does not believe that these various sources have complicated the immunization boost. She said vaccines delivered to African countries are unusually stored and distributed by the plant, noting that Senegal first received doses of vaccines made in China, followed by doses of AstraZeneca produced in India.
Similarly, Rwanda first purchased BioNTech-Pfizer vaccines before importing doses of AstraZeneca. And Kenya received doses through the COVAX system, as well as from Indian donations.
Vaccine nationalism leading to vaccine skepticism
Kyobutungi predicts a problem with rich countries rejecting AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines because they can afford to buy alternatives, leaving African countries what is left simply because they have no choice. This, she said, could increase vaccine skepticism among Africans.
Kyobutungi said African countries lag behind in their vaccination campaigns
Therefore, the WHO urged all countries to invest more in the COVAX scheme, warning against giving up the “vaccine nationalism” by which some states buy newly developed vaccines and give priority to their own people.
“This is a big problem facing Africa,” Kyobutungi said. Nationalist tendencies, she said, “undermine the COVAX initiative,” and deliveries of vaccine doses to Africa through COVAX have been delayed by 20 percent. She added that it was not in the long-term interest of global health when countries like the United States give priority to vaccinating every American citizen before considering sharing doses with other nations.
Vaccine doses are lost
African countries need large amounts of doses to immunize their populations. Oddly enough, however, the doses will be wasted due to poor infrastructure. Malawi Health Secretary Charles Mwansambo, for example, announced this week that more than 16,400 doses had expired and would now be destroyed. These were part of a batch of 102,000 doses provided by the African Union.
Kyobutungi said there are expected to be ongoing problems with logistics and cold chain provision, adding that it is possible that in two months there will be news that 200,000 doses have expired due to difficulties in transporting them to rural areas. And, she said, the memory of these vaccines already distributed was really very provocative.
This article was translated from German