Category: Medical

New York – The former Co-Chairs of the Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPPR), Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of Liberia, and Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, have expressed their deep concern at the slow pace of redistribution of COVID-19 vaccines from high income to low-income countries.

“The Independent Panel report recommended that high-income countries ensure that at least one billion doses of vaccines available to them were redistributed to 92 low- and middle-income countries by 1 September, and a further one billion doses by mid-2022”, President Sirleaf and Helen Clark said. “Ensuring that all those around the world most vulnerable to the impact of the virus, including healthcare workers, older people and those with significant comorbidities, can be vaccinated quickly is a critical step towards curbing the pandemic.”

The Co-Chairs noted that, to date, 99 million dose donations have been shipped via COVAX, out of which only 89 million have been shipped to the 92 Advance Market Commitment countries – far short of the one billion doses the Independent Panel has called for. “High-income countries have ordered over twice as many doses as are needed for their populations. Now is the time to show solidarity with those who have not yet been able to vaccinate their frontline health workers and most vulnerable populations. Reaching the goal of redistributing one billion doses by 1 September would be a vital step in protecting the five billion people aged 15 and over who live in low- and middle-income countries. The 600 million doses which have already been pledged now need to be delivered with urgency”, the Co-Chairs said.

The Co-Chairs also noted that there needs to be much more rapid action on increasing vaccine production in low- and middle-income countries. “Manufacturing capacity has to be increased and knowledge and technology shared in order to scale up production quickly. This pandemic has shown the global risks of locating the know-how and manufacturing facilities in just a handful of countries.”

“We welcome the announcement that a COVID mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub has been established in South Africa. More such announcements are needed. Low- and middle-income countries must be able to produce more of their own vaccines and thereby help increase in general the amount of vaccine available to the world”, the Co-Chairs said.

For more information, please contact secretariat@ipppr.org

Doses pledged to COVAX: https://www.gavi.org/sites/default/files/covid/covax/COVAX-Dose-Donation-Table.pdf

Source: World Health Organization

ADDIS ABABA – The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa reached 7,721,121, as of yesterday afternoon, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said.

Africa CDC, the specialised healthcare agency of the African Union, said, the death toll from the pandemic across the continent stands at 194,160, and 6,854,726 patients across the continent have recovered from the disease, so far.

South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia and Ethiopia are among the countries with the most cases in the continent, according to the agency.

South Africa has recorded the most COVID-19 cases in Africa, with 2,757,191 cases, while the northern African country of Morocco reported 849,532, as of yesterday afternoon.

In terms of the caseload, southern Africa is the most affected region, followed by the northern and eastern parts of the continent, while central Africa is the least affected region in the continent, according to the Africa CDC.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Participants of a G20 Compact with Africa meeting this week assessed Africa’s progress in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. “We are meeting at a pivotal time in the relationship between Africa and the rest of the world,” said Italian prime minister Mario Draghi.

The Compact with Africa is a G20 initiative that promotes macroeconomic, business and financing reforms to attract more private investment in Africa, including in infrastructure.

The conference brought together heads of state of the 12 Compact members and institutional partners, including the African Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It involved strategy discussions around attracting higher inflows of foreign direct investment to Africa and the urgent imperative to develop vaccine manufacture capability on the African continent. Securing the continent’s recovery from the impacts of Covid-19 is one of the Compact’s near-term objectives.

Vaccine inequity was a recurring theme, and heads of state shared reforms that they had undertaken as part of the initiative. Closer international cooperation was urged to address climate change, debt levels and investment shortfalls.

President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa emphasized that “Africa will not be able to recover until Africans are vaccinated.” President Emmanuel Macron said France had committed to providing $10 million vaccine doses for Africa.

African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina said the African Development Bank had committed to investing $5 billion to support vaccine manufacturing across Africa, while World Bank President David Malpass highlighted vaccine financing programs set up in 54 countries, noting that more than half of these are in Africa.

African leaders expressed consensus on the need for vaccine self-sufficiency as a longer-term solution. President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana said there should have been lessons learned from Ebola. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen drew attention to the initiative to develop mRNA technology in Africa across different regional hubs.

African Development Bank President Adesina referred to gains made by Compact members. “We have seen a lot of improvement in public private partnerships and in the cost and ease of doing business but also in terms of the companies that are investing in a lot of African countries.” He also underscored the African Continental Free Trade Area and its expected impacts.

Other constraints discussed included rising levels of debt and restricted fiscal space resulting from the pandemic. “The reduction of liquidity,” hit us hard,” said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. Although Ghana sustained growth through 2020, President Akufo-Addo acknowledged that national debt had risen to 77.1% of GDP.

Many speakers noted that reforms were yielding results. The IMF’s Georgieva said that Compact countries outperform their peers. Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said his country had stabilized its debt through prudent management and opened up its telecom sector for investment.

A virtual session held on the sidelines of the conference provided a forum for German and African private sector representatives to discuss investment opportunities on the continent.

The Conference also included a follow-up session that focused on how to overcome economic, skills and intellectual property constraints to developing domestic mRNA vaccine manufacture across Africa.

Source: African Development Bank

WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States is shipping more than two million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Algeria, Ghana and Yemen, the White House said, boosting efforts to combat a third wave of the pandemic across Africa.

The shipments, which a White House official said would land before the end of this week, will be the first donated by the United States to all three countries. They come on the heels of recent deliveries to other countries on the continent, including Nigeria and hard-hit South Africa last month.

Taken from surplus in the US stockpile, 604,800 doses of Johnson & Johnson will go to Algeria, just over 1.2 million doses of Moderna to Ghana, and another 151,200 J&J doses to Yemen, said the official, who asked not to be identified.

All the shipments are being made through Covax, the distributor backed by the World Health Organization and the Gavi vaccine alliance.

President Joe Biden, who took office promising to focus on getting Americans vaccinated after suffering the world’s highest toll from coronavirus, has since expanded his goal to make the United States the vaccine “arsenal” internationally.

The “administration understands that putting an end to this pandemic requires eliminating it around the world,” the White House official said.

Biden has come under fire for authorizing Americans to get booster shots starting in September, but US officials say there is enough capacity, even while maintaining the flow of donations abroad.

The latest shipments will raise the total number of US shots delivered in Africa to more than 25 million, the official said.

Africa is in the grip of a third wave of infections and losing the race to mass vaccination.

Less than two percent of people across the continent are fully vaccinated, with some countries having to destroy unused shots because they lack the health infrastructure to administer them or have met strong vaccine hesitancy.

Ghana, with a population of around 32 million, was initially hailed as a model for coronavirus response, even using drones to deliver vaccines to remote areas. Ghana was also the first country to get vaccines through Covax in February.

However, less than three percent of the population is estimated to have been fully vaccinated. The Covid death toll of 982, reported to the World Health Organization, is believed to be underestimated due to lack of testing.

Algeria, which has close relations with Moscow and was an early recipient of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, is also struggling to get shots in arms. According to WHO figures, there have been 5,063 Covid deaths in the country of 43 million people.

There is a lack of reliable pandemic data from Yemen, already on its knees from war and poverty. The devastated nation of 30 million relies on vaccine donations but also suffers from threadbare healthcare infrastructure.

The White House says about 130 million doses have so far been distributed from the United States to 90 countries.

In addition to dipping into its surplus supplies, the US government has purchased 500 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses specifically for distribution to the African Union and 92 selected low-income countries. The United States also donated $2 billion to Covax.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

A World Health Organization official said Thursday that the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on the continent appeared to be stabilizing, but numbers of infections are still very high, with almost 248,000 new cases reported in the past week alone.

During a virtual briefing on the status of the pandemic in Africa, WHO Africa Regional Director Matshidiso Moeti said that 24 countries were seeing a resurgence of infections and that deaths were rising in eight countries.

She said, “This is a preventable tragedy if African countries can get fair access to the vaccines.”

Moeti said the good news was that 13 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the past week, triple that of the previous week. She said many of the doses came from donations and sharing arrangements through the WHO-administered COVAX vaccine cooperative.

She said 117 million doses were due to arrive in Africa in the coming month. But to meet the goal of having at least 10 percent of the continent vaccinated by the end of September, she said, another 34 million doses will be needed.

The WHO Africa director urged nations with ample supplies to keep sharing doses. She said, “With international solidarity we can protect those at highest risk of COVID-19 in all countries in the world.”

She also encouraged African governments to ensure that staffing and financial resources were available when shots arrived “to get vaccines into the arms of our populations. No precious doses should be wasted.”

Source: Voice of America

Addis Ababa, 25 August 2021 – The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) today launched a new collaboration to strengthen community resilience and response to public health emergencies at community level. The two institutions have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to ramp up pandemic response—including testing support to countries; community mobilization; advocacy and scaling up of contact tracing. In addition to COVID-19, the collaboration includes other areas of public health.

Africa CDC and IFRC will strengthen investments in locally-led action—for prevention and response purposes—while working with governments to ensure they intensify efforts to roll out the COVID-19 vaccination. Additionally, Africa CDC and IFRC will scale up advocacy against vaccine wastage.

This new initiative comes at a time Africa continues to face major vaccine shortages, amid a high level of community transmission in countries such as Botswana, Burundi, Eswatini, Cabo Verde, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

John Nkengasong, Africa CDC Director, said: “Africa is facing a double-edged challenge of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, dealing with health response gaps, and also trying to ensure that the continent prepares efficiently for future pandemics, using lessons from current challenges”.

Africa CDC has been implementing various public health responses to control COVID-19. These include the engagement of community health workers in risk communication and community sensitization; surveillance activities for early case identification; contact tracing and in facilitating referrals for testing and continuum of care.

Jagan Chapagain, IFRC Secretary General, said: “What the IFRC and its network of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies bring to this partnership with Africa CDC is our unparalleled access to local communities. Our community-based volunteers have the access and trust that are needed to address vaccine hesitancy and sensitize communities about adherence to preventive measures”.

The Africa CDC has been working to support African Union Member States to build a wide network of 2 million community health workers (CHWs) in line with the July 2017 African Union Assembly Decision. The collaboration with the IFRC network, which includes 1.2 million Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers across the continent is expected to strengthen community level interventions and consolidate gains in tackling the spread of the virus, while increasing awareness about vaccine benefits.

National Red Cross Red and Crescent Societies across Africa remain on the frontline of the response to COVID-19. They are providing ambulance services; conducting contact tracing and point of entry screening. They are also tackling stigma and the spread of misinformation and provide emotional comfort and psychological support to people in need.

Media contacts

Africa CDC:

Dr Herilinda Temba (CHWs program): HerilindaT@africa-union.org

Dolphine Buoga (Partnership): DolphineB@africa-union.org

Fortunate C. Mutesi (Partnership): Mutesic@africa-union.org

Chrys P. Kaniki (Media engagement): KanikiC@africa-union.org

IFRC:

In Addis: Betelehem Tsedeke, +251 935 987 286, Betelehem.tsedeke@ifrc.org

In Nairobi: Euloge Ishimwe, +254 731 688 613, euloge.ishimwe@ifrc.org

In Geneva: Laura Ngo-Fontaine, +41 79 570 4418, laura.ngofontaine@ifrc.org

Source: International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies

The primordial days of the COVID-19 outbreak led to a rapid surge in demand — and subsequent shortage — of many consumables, from household goods and protective equipment to the ingredients and substances needed to test for the virus. As the world grappled with the newfound need to mass-test for COVID-19, laboratories turned to real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (real-time RT–PCR). Real-time RT–PCR is the most accurate laboratory method to detect, track and study COVID-19; however, its widespread use strained resources and led some laboratories to seek more readily available and cheaper alternatives.

A study to test the performance and quality of some of these alternative resources was recently conducted by the IAEA and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES). Its results have implications for the ongoing fight against COVID-19 in developing countries and beyond.

A Scientific Forum on ‘Preparing for Zoonotic Outbreaks: the Role of Nuclear Science’ will take place from 21-22 September 2021 in conjunction with the 65th IAEA General Conference. The detection of zoonotic diseases – infectious diseases transmitted from animals to humans, such as COVID-19 – is one of many topics that will be discussed at the Scientific Forum, taking into consideration the role of nuclear and nuclear derived techniques.

Reagents for reaction

Reagents are the substances, compounds, primers, probes, enzymes and buffers needed in laboratory tests. Like the essential ingredients of a recipe, they are key to facilitating a chemical reaction and ensuring the proper final result — the salt and butter, so to speak.

“In a situation of increased demand such as during the COVID-19 crisis, many laboratories might quickly find themselves in a situation where they can no longer obtain reagents from their usual sources and are forced to switch to other providers of reagents or other ad hoc molecular diagnostic kits than the ones they are used to,” said Adi Steinrigl, Deputy Head of the Molecular Biology Department at AGES. “Labs doing real-time RT–PCR tests rely on trusted sources of reagents, usually in the form of a master mix or ready-to-go diagnostic kit solutions, called ad hoc molecular diagnostic kits.”

A master mix is a premixed solution that has all of the components for a real-time RT–PCR reaction and is not sample-specific, meaning the same reagents used to detect COVID-19 can also be used to detect other viruses. Ad hoc kits are for specific diseases and pathogens.

In April 2020, in collaboration with AGES, the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques for Food and Agriculture launched a study to assess and compare eight master mixes and three ad hoc kits developed by companies based in Austria, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

The study included the most common types of master mixes used and available on the international market among the many molecular assays, or tests, that are commercialized for the diagnosis of COVID-19. As of July 2021, 388 were listed by the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics.

Promising results

At the FAO–IAEA laboratories in Seibersdorf, Austria, IAEA experts tested 178 clinical samples provided by AGES, using each of the 11 commercial kits and master mixes. The results of the study established that all the tested master mixes and ad hoc kits can be used for the routine detection of the COVID-19 virus.

“The bottom line is that the tested products provided results that are similar to what can be obtained if using the reagents recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO),” said Giovanni Cattoli, Head of the Animal Production and Health Laboratory at the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre. “In a country where reagents for the recommended protocols are not available or are extremely expensive, laboratories can replace them with some of the other reagents included in the study and achieve similarly accurate results. With this study, we validated alternatives so that laboratories around the world can utilize available reagents to mass-test populations for COVID-19, therefore making the tests more accessible.”

The time needed for and costs of carrying out a real-time RT–PCR test vary, especially among different countries. A real-time RT–PCR test typically takes a couple of hours to complete, from receiving samples to issuing results, and the costs of reagents depend on the company and reagent type. Overall, excluding human resource costs, tests can cost from around €7 to €20, Cattoli added.

Steinrigl agreed that reagents and ad hoc molecular diagnostic kits might differ considerably in their costs: “Comparing the performance of reagents can actually save money. We can see cheaper solutions are not necessarily any less accurate than the more expensive ones.”

The procedures and results of the study have been shared with the IAEA Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (VETLAB) Network, in which some labs have been requested by national authorities to provide testing for COVID. The VETLAB network includes 46 countries in Africa and 19 in Asia. The study was also published online by the Journal of Virological Methods in June 2021.

“These types of studies are needed for other transboundary animal and zoonotic diseases,” Cattoli said. The IAEA is conducting a similar study for African swine fever. “It is important to have an idea of what type of reagents can be used to run real-time RT–PCR testing for these diseases and ensure that the results are equal to the those produced by the recommended protocols.”

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency