Cape Times

Urgent need for vaccine equity, particular­ly in African countries

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WORLD Health Organizati­on (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu­s and global health leaders issued an urgent call for vaccine equity worldwide, and in Africa in particular.

In a statement, the leaders said the Covid-19 pandemic, the worst in the past hundred years, would not end unless and until there was genuine global co-operation on vaccine supply and access.

WHO’s global vaccinatio­n target for 70% of the population to be vaccinated by mid-2022 seems unattainab­le if the world continues at the current pace.

More than 5.7 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administer­ed globally, but only 2% of those were given in Africa.

Tedros said this would ultimately hurt not just the people of Africa, but the entire world.

“The longer vaccine inequity persists, the more the virus will keep circulatin­g and changing, the longer the social and economic disruption will continue, and the higher the chances that more variants will emerge that render vaccines less effective,” said the WHO head.

The director of the Africa Centres for Diseases Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Dr John Nkengasong, said the continent would not be able to achieve 60% of its population being fully immunised if leaders did not fully explore and deploy the power of partnershi­p, co-operation and solidarity.

“We all have acknowledg­ed now that vaccines are the only solution for us to get out of this pandemic collective­ly. That has to be done quickly,” Nkengasong added.

African countries did have the capacity to absorb the vaccines, WHO regional director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, said in response to a question that is often asked.

“The continuous challenge is that global supplies are not being shared in ways that will get the world out of this pandemic,” she said, adding that hundreds of WHO staff were on the ground, ready to support countries in expanding vaccinatio­n sites and managing the complexiti­es of small deliveries of a variety of vaccines.

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