Vaccination in Africa is still very low, something that puts its population and the world at risk

Nearing two years of the pandemic, the world continues to face new outbreaks of coronavirus caused by the appearance of variants, although, it seems, the last ones would be less strong.

The appearance of the omicron variant, reported for the first time in South Africa, is to blame for the vertiginous increase in cases, while in France this week another one named IHU appeared.

“It is the inevitable result of hoarding vaccines and leaving Africa out,” Ayoade Olatunbosun-Alakija, spokesperson for the African Alliance for Vaccine Delivery, said in late 2021.

In an interview with BBC He claimed that if the coronavirus had appeared in Africa instead of China, the rest of the world closed the continent and a response would not have developed as quickly. It shows the restrictions that were quickly imposed on African countries by the omicron variant in November.

As in the rest of the continents, Africa has started 2022 fully immersed in a new wave of coronavirus infections, with most countries registering a rapid rise in cases as authorities try to get closer to the goal of vaccinating 70% of the population of the continent at the end of this year, a figure that shows the delay in this matter with just over 10% of the population immunized.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), currently the countries of Africa – home to 16% of the global population, that is, about 1,300 million people – have only administered 3% of the coronavirus vaccines distributed all over the planet.

In this scenario, health workers in Africa have designed creative strategies to accelerate the trends of recent months and try to eliminate false rumors about this epidemic. Eph.

In Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, nurses now deliver vaccines on the busiest streets, under the shade of makeshift tents and sometimes surrounded by crowded lines.

Also, in northern Kenya, a semi-desert area bordering Ethiopia, local authorities immunized numerous semi-nomadic herders because they decided to offer them vaccines against the coronavirus at the same time as others to protect the health of their camels.

While in Liberia nurses vaccinate citizens in churches, mosques and markets, and in Uganda they do so at the entrance of restaurants, sports stadiums and other popular gathering places.

Although during the first months of this pandemic some governments of the African continent denied the existence of COVID-19 within their territories, as happened in Burundi or Tanzania, now all the leaders of the continent are asking citizens in unison to go to get vaccinated.

The president of Senegal, Macky Sall, has demanded respect “for sanitary norms”, including “the use of masks and vaccination”, and indicated that this was the only way to avoid the multiplication of “serious cases” and hospitalizations.

However, despite those messages and the efforts of health workers, Africa still has many barriers to overcome to reach the African Union (AU) goal: to immunize at least 70% of its population by 2022.

According to John Nkengasong, director of the African Union Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), who announced that roadmap late last year, mass immunization of the continent is the only way to get the disease under control. COVID-19 pandemic.

The number of doses the continent receives has grown in recent months, but Africa continues to find in this race against the clock it has internal obstacles -such as the reluctance of many citizens to be immunized- and external -an unequal distribution of vaccines that prioritizes the countries of the global north.

The WHO representative in Uganda, Dr. Yonas Tegegn, has no doubts: this continent has the capacity to achieve the goal of the AU thanks to the accumulated experience in its fight against other diseases, such as measles.

For Dr. Phionah Atuhebwe, a Ugandan expert on immunization programs, all of humanity has a lot at stake in Africa, a region that has more than 9.7 million positives and about 229,000 deaths, according to the latest official data compiled by the Africa CDC .

“COVID-19 knows no borders,” Atuhebwe recalled. If a single country lags behind in immunization, this virus will have room to mutate into more dangerous variants. Ethical reasons aside, this is why high-income countries should help low-income nations. “

Dr. Fernando Espinoza, director of the UEES Research and Consulting Center, indicates that despite initiatives such as Covax, the international community has not had the efficiency of delivering free vaccines to Africa, causing the current situation.

He adds that in the world 50% of the population is fully vaccinated and we must work on that, not only in Africa but also in countries like India (the second most populated country), which has more accessibility, but there are other cultural issues that prevent the number of immunized from growing. And, anywhere, an unvaccinated person who contracts the virus can cause new mutations, which can be more aggressive or more deadly, without forgetting the risk to them. Although it also remembers that the mortality of this virus does not reach 5%, something that must be taken into account when making decisions.

For Josefina Coloma, a doctor and researcher at the University of Berkeley, what is worrying about an entire under-vaccinated continent is the lack of global solidarity, individualism and the interests of pharmaceutical companies to sell their formulations to the most powerful countries. 2022 is shaping up with more hope for an equitable distribution of vaccines, with Covax, more donors and with the news of the new Corbevax vaccine that has been delivered to the world free of patents.

Coloma adds that it is even more worrying what happens in countries like the United States with millions of people who refuse the vaccine, politicization of public health and vaccination campaigns that go on very long cycles, so it is not achieved. synchronized protection.

Andrew Pollard, one of the scientists who helped develop AstraZeneca-Oxford’s coronavirus vaccine, told The Daily Telegraph that due to the fact that it has not been possible to vaccinate people in Africa with one dose, a fourth dose will not be possible, as is already being discussed in some countries.

Pollar added that the entire planet cannot be vaccinated every six months. (I)