World Immunization Week 2022: Vaccine progress for Africa

Established the last week of April globally, Vaccination Week aims to raise awareness of the importance of vaccination for all ages and to expand vaccination coverage.

Let’s take advantage of this event to take stock of vaccination against Covid-19 in Africa. According to France 24.com, only a little more than 10% of the African population was vaccinated in mid-February 2022. We are therefore far from the figures of the richest countries on the planet.

However, there is progress in terms of production and availability of the vaccine on this continent: six countries are going to have production lines to manufacture doses of the vaccine against Covid-19 and the supply of doses has increased considerably these last months.

There remains a slowness in the deployment of vaccines within the various African countries. This is mainly due to the health situation of the vast majority of them.

This week is also an opportunity for us to celebrate the recent development of the first vaccine against malaria, a vaccine which joins the arsenal of existing antimalarial measures, among which we also find the awareness of populations about the use impregnated mosquito nets for example.

According to BBC.com, this new vaccine would have an effectiveness rate of 77% and is the subject of new large-scale tests in 4 African countries. As you will have understood, if it has yet to prove itself, this vaccine is truly a source of hope.