By Williams ABAH
The World Health Organisation, WHO, has approved Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia to produce Covid-19 vaccines in their countries.
The approved countries were selected as the first recipients of technology from the WHO’s global mRNA vaccine hub.
Director General of WHO, Tedros Ghebreyesus, said the six countries will receive the technology needed to produce mRNA vaccines, adding that Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia all applied and have been selected as recipients.
In his word, “The global mRNA technology transfer hub was established in 2021 to support manufacturers in low- and middle-income countries to produce their own vaccines, ensuring that they have all the necessary operating procedures and know-how to manufacture mRNA vaccines at scale and according to international standards”.
According to him, the infrastructure, workforce and clinical research, and regulatory capacity has been put in place.
He also said that WHO and partners will work with the beneficiary countries to develop a roadmap and put in place the necessary training and support so that they can start producing vaccines as soon as possible.
He further called for equitable access to vaccines in order to beat the pandemic, and compete against the way wealthy nations have leaves Africa behind other continents in the global vaccination effort.
He said, “No other event like the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that reliance on a few companies to supply global public goods is limiting, and dangerous”.
He noted that mid-to-long term plan, is the best way to address health emergencies in order to reach universal health coverage.
