Our website use cookies to improve and personalize your experience and to display advertisements (if any). Our website may also include cookies from third parties like Google Adsense, Google Analytics, and Youtube. By using the website, you consent to the use of cookies.

More African countries set to approve malaria shot; 20 million doses ready in 2023

More African countries set to approve malaria shot; 20 million doses ready in 2023

JENNIFER RIGBY AFRICAN countries are lining up to approve a new vaccine for malaria, with 20 million doses available for them to buy this year, the shot’s manufacturer told Reuters. This week, Nigeria's medicines regulator followed Ghana's, with the two nations becoming the first countries in the world to back the new R21 vaccine, developed by scientists at Oxford University and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and Novavax. The move was unusual as it came before the World Health Organization's approval. African countries that do not have extensive resources for drug regulation have previously relied on the U.N. agency to initially review…
Read More
Serum Institute to produce Ebola vaccine for use in Uganda outbreak

Serum Institute to produce Ebola vaccine for use in Uganda outbreak

AARON ROSS THE Serum Institute of India plans to manufacture 20,000 to 30,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine by the end of November for use in trials against an outbreak in Uganda, its developers and a company source said. The response to Uganda's outbreak has been blunted by the absence of a proven vaccine against the Sudan strain of the virus. There have been 54 confirmed cases and 19 deaths since last month and the first case in the capital, Kampala, was recorded last week. But health authorities believe the actual numbers could be higher. Vaccines against the more common Zaire…
Read More
‘We are waiting to die’: Desperation after India halts vaccine exports

‘We are waiting to die’: Desperation after India halts vaccine exports

NITA BHALLA and BEH LIH YI WHEN John Omondi received his COVID-19 vaccination last month, the Kenyan taxi driver counted himself one of the lucky ones. Now, he's not so sure - victim of a vaccine export freeze by mega-producer India that has dashed hopes of protection for millions of poor people caught in the pandemic. "It was a good day when I got the vaccine. I needed it because of my age and my work," explained Omondi, 59, as he navigated the busy roads of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. "I am supposed to get my second dose in June,…
Read More
Africa CDC cannot predict date for 2nd shots

Africa CDC cannot predict date for 2nd shots

MANY Africans who have received their first COVID-19 vaccine do not know when they will get a second shot because deliveries are delayed, the continent's top public health official has said. "We cannot predict when the second doses will come and that is not good for our vaccination programme," John Nkengasong, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), told reporters. Africa lags behind most other regions in COVID-19 vaccinations, with just less than 14 million doses having been administered on the continent of 1.3 billion, according to the Africa CDC. Ghana, for example, has…
Read More
India refunds SA for undelivered doses

India refunds SA for undelivered doses

THE Serum Institute of India has fully refunded South Africa for 500,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine which the country did not want and which had not yet been delivered, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said yesterday. He added that South Africa expected to get more than 1 million vaccine doses from Johnson & Johnson in April as the country looks to ramp up its vaccination drive.
Read More
African Union drops AstraZeneca vaccine

African Union drops AstraZeneca vaccine

THE African Union's disease control body has dropped plans to secure AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines for its members from the Serum Institute of India, the world's biggest vaccine supplier, amid global shortfalls of the shot. The announcement is another blow to AstraZeneca, which has touted its shot as the vaccine for the world because it is the cheapest and easiest to store and transport, making it well suited to the needs of developing countries. It comes the day after European and British medicine regulators said they had found possible links between the vaccine and rare cases of brain blood clots, while…
Read More
Nigeria to limit first doses of AstraZeneca due to supply concerns

Nigeria to limit first doses of AstraZeneca due to supply concerns

LIBBY GEORGE NIGERIA has directed its 36 states and federal capital territory to stop giving first doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines once they use half their current stock in order to safeguard supply for the second dose, its health minister said. Osagie Ehanire said the directive came amid concerns over when Nigeria would get another shipment of the shots after India put a temporary hold on all major exports of the doses made by the Serum Institute of India (SII). India, the world's second most populous country, is aiming to preserve supply to meet domestic demand. It reported a record…
Read More
‘Vaccine delay could be catastrophic for Africa ‘

‘Vaccine delay could be catastrophic for Africa ‘

INDIA’S temporary hold on major exports of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 shot will undermine Africa's vaccination plans, and could have a "catastrophic" impact if extended, the head of the continent's disease control body said yesterday. India decided to delay big exports of the shots made in its territory by the Serum Institute of India (SII) to make sure it could meet local demand, two sources told Reuters last week. The hold "will definitely impact our ability to continuously vaccinate people," the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told a news conference in Addis Ababa. The African…
Read More
Morocco expects 4.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses soon, officials say

Morocco expects 4.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses soon, officials say

MOROCCO expects new batches of coronavirus vaccine to arrive soon from Russia, South Korea and China, allowing it to continue its rapid immunisation roll-out despite a pause in exports from India, health ministry sources said. Morocco has already received 8.5-million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, made in India, and Sinopharm vaccine, made in China, allowing it to administer more jabs than any other African country. It expects 4.2-million more doses soon, said Health Ministry scientific committee member Said Afif, keeping it on track to reach its target of herd immunity before the summer. These include two million more Sinopharm doses, a…
Read More
India sends vaccine to Africa

India sends vaccine to Africa

INDIA has made its first shipment of a locally made COVID-19 shot to the WHO-backed equitable vaccine distribution network COVAX, the government said. "Fulfilling our commitment to help the world with COVID-19 vaccines, supplies of Made-in-India vaccine commence today for Africa under COVAX facility," Anurag Srivastava, spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs, said on Twitter. The World Health Organization this month paved the way for the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine's global roll-out by approving emergency use of the product produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's biggest vaccine maker, and SK Bioscience of South Korea. SII will…
Read More