15 Vaccine Clinical Trials Underway in Africa, Including 4 In Egypt

World

October 6th, 11:27am

Asharq Al-Awsat

FILE PHOTO: A nurse prepares vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) for inoculation in a post-registration trials stage at a clinic. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva

Fifteen clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines are underway across the African continent, according to a comment published in the journal Nature by Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Four trials are occurring Egypt while five are in South Africa and with a single trial each in Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe. African nations have teamed up to combat the pandemic, with painful memories of millions of Africans dying in the decade it took for affordable HIV drugs to become available on the continent. “Africa has ended up at the end of the queue every time” in the race for disease therapies, the Nature comment said. But COVID-19 has jolted the African Union into jointly pursuing vaccine trials and even vaccine manufacturing, The Associated Press reported. The Africa CDC estimates the continent will need 1.5 billion vaccine doses, enough to give 60% of the population the two doses likely required. Vaccines and delivery could cost up to $10 billion, and delivery across the vast continent will be a major challenge.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2549336/15-vaccine-clinical-trials-underway-africa-including-4-egypt