Covidex is an herbal medicine intended to complement other Covid-19 treatments. Many scientists say that the maximum herbs of classical crops are administered as a component of a comprehensive medical system. PHOTO/FILE
Industries that produce vaccines will be flexible to be able to produce other vaccines to cure new pandemics, a senior public health ministry official said.
Dr Moses Seru, Commissioner of Pharmaceuticals and Natural Medicines, said some Covid-19 production industries are now underutilised as the virus is no longer a global risk as it was two years ago.
“When covid-19 hit, many scientists made vaccines. Now we have more covid-19 vaccines in the world because covid-19 is no longer a major global threat,” Dr. Seru said at a two-day regional convention on vaccine production in Entebbe on Tuesday.
“In the future, industries that produce vaccines will be able to replace the production of other vaccines if this specific pandemic ends,” he added.
After Covid-19 began causing many deaths, several industries, including Pfizer and BioNTech, joined in a race against the virus, racing to design, test, manufacture and distribute an effective vaccine in record time.
This has noted that the UK produces Oxford-AstraZeneca, USA. U. S. and Germany produce Pfizer-BioNTech, U. S. and India produce Baylor and Biological E, among others.
Speaking at the same event, Dr. Moses Mulumba, Director General of Afya na Haki (Ahaki), an African institute that generates wisdom and builds advocacy capacity, denounced the few industries in Africa that manufacture vaccines.
“Africa, a continent of 54 countries with more than 1. 2 billion inhabitants, produces 1% of the vaccines it administers. The remaining 99% is imported. Most come from overseas procurement mechanisms, such as through UNICEF, a UN children’s charity. Dr. Mulumba said.
“Africa’s vaccine production capacity is not commensurate with the severity of its burden of vaccine-preventable diseases. With the inability to produce its own, Africa has found itself at the back of the line of life-saving vaccines, such as coronavirus vaccines, where less than 12% of the African population is fully vaccinated to 71% of the population in Europe,” he said. Added.
Until recently, there were 10 brands of vaccines in African countries, with Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia collectively generating a small fraction of the continent’s needs.
Similarly, 3 countries have reached the point of adulthood for vaccination prestige since 2021, namely Egypt, Ghana and South Africa.
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