vaccines - The African Mirror

Jul

2022

Africa in need of test kits, vaccines as monkeypox spreads

BHARGAV ACHARYA and NELLIE PEYTON AFRICA has no vaccines for monkeypox and test kits are in short supply, international health agencies said, warning that richer countries already appeared to be hoarding vaccines. Monkeypox is a viral disease that causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions. It is endemic in parts of Africa but has also recently been reported in countries with no history of human transmission, including Ghana, Morocco and South Africa. "The geographic spread of monkeypox to parts of Africa where cases have never been detected before is a worrying sign," said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization (WHO)…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Indian medical workers scale mountains to bring vaccines to remote corners

WORLD

AS India rushes to vaccinate its people against the coronavirus, medical workers often have to trek to perilous heights and across treacherous terrain to reach those in remote areas. In the northern region of Lidderwat, more than 100 km (60 miles) from the capital of India-administered Kashmir, medical teams have had to trek more than six hours on foot and ponies to reach nomadic and shepherd tribes in the mountains. On a recent morning, Reuters tagged along with a team of over a dozen health workers carrying medical kits and equipment including oxygen cylinders atop ponies and on foot to…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

COVID SCIENCE: The latest

COVID-19

NANCY LAPID THE following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Vaccines protect against variants despite diminished antibodies The one-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and the two-dose vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech appear to protect against worrisome coronavirus variants despite diminished levels of antibodies that can neutralize the newer versions of the virus, two studies in the journal Nature suggest. The authors of both studies said other immune responses may be compensating. In one study, published on…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

EXCLUSIVE-UK’s Raab: No doubt some countries are using vaccines as a geopolitical tool

WORLD

WILLIAM JAMES BRITISH foreign minister Dominic Raab said yesterday there was no doubt some countries were using vaccines as a diplomatic tool to secure influence, and that Britain did not support so-called 'vaccine diplomacy. Asked in a Reuters interview whether he was concerned that China and Russia could use vaccines in exchange for influence in parts of the world, he said: "There's no doubt there's some of this is going about, and we don't support vaccine diplomacy, let alone blackmail. "We think that we've got a moral duty, but also a strong vested interest in getting the world vaccinated," he…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Pope backs vaccines rights waiver

COVID-19

POPE Francis yesterday came out in support of waiving intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, backing a proposal by U.S. President Joe Biden that has been rebuffed by some European nations, including Germany. In a speech to a global fundraising concert to promote fair access to vaccines, the pope said the world was infected with the "virus of individualism". "A variant of this virus is closed nationalism, which prevents, for example, an internationalism of vaccines," he said in the pre-recorded video message. "Another variant is when we put the laws of the market or of intellectual market or intellectual property…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa’s daunting COVID-19 vaccine rollout

HEALTH

GUY OLIVER IN May, South Africa begins its mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign, aimed at reaching 40 million people – the minimum to reach herd immunity – by the beginning of next year. As even wealthy nations are struggling with their rollouts, the South African campaign will be keenly watched by other developing countries. Like much of the Global South, South Africa is dealing with issues around procuring enough vaccines; the logistical hurdles of delivering them; and the communication challenges in overcoming vaccine hesitancy. The campaign will be rolled out into one of the world’s most unequal societies. About one in five…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Explainer: how South Africa regulates medicines and vaccines

HEALTH

COVID-19 has raised public awareness about the role of national medicines regulatory authorities in enabling access to safe, effective and quality-assured medicines. This includes vaccines. ANDY GRAY, Senior Lecturer, Division of Pharmacology, University of KwaZulu-Natal In South Africa, the pandemic has also exposed a number of important misperceptions, among the public and health professionals. The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority is responsible for monitoring, evaluating, investigating, inspecting and registering all health products. These include medicines for human and animal use, medical devices and diagnostic tests. The authority is an independent structure, located outside the Department of Health and the…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa secures vaccines for 26 million people

COVID-19

SOUTH Africa has secured enough COVID-19 vaccines for at least 26 million people, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize disclosed yesterday. Africa's most industrialised economy aims to vaccinate 40 million people, or two-thirds of its population, to reach herd immunity. It has recorded the most coronavirus infections and deaths on the African continent, and received its first shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India this week. A health ministry presentation said the government had signed a term sheet for 9 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine at $10 a dose. One of the conditions for J&J's vaccine was the establishment of…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Why resistance is common in antibiotics, but rare in vaccines

HEALTH

CELIA SOUQUE, Postdoctoral Researcher, Microbiology, University of Oxford LOUIS DU PLESSIS, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Oxford ANTIBIOTIC resistance is a worldwide problem to the extent that there is a grave risk that common infections will soon become untreatable. Meanwhile, vaccines developed nearly a century ago still protect us from deadly diseases. What might explain this difference? Bacteria have evolved resistance to every antibiotic ever developed. Sometimes this happened very soon after an antibiotic was first introduced. It took just six years for resistance to penicillin, the first antibiotic, to become widespread in British hospitals. But resistance against vaccines has…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa testing vaccines on variant

COVID-19

ALEXANDER WINNING SOUTH African scientists are testing whether vaccines will be less effective against a COVID-19 variant first detected locally and hope for initial results within two weeks, a professor at the national communicable disease institute said. The variant, known as 501Y.V2, was identified by South African genomics experts late last year and is thought to be more contagious than older variants. Professor Penny Moore told Reuters the National Institute of Communicable Diseases had received samples from several local vaccine trials, including Oxford University and AstraZeneca's shot, and would try to find out whether antibody responses are reduced against 501Y.V2.…