Thousands Of Vaccines Sent To Africa Are Being Wasted Despite Scarcity

Amid vaccine scarcity on the continent, it has been reported that thousands of vaccine doses are set to be destroyed in African countries because they've exceeded their expiry dates.

Others are simply being returned by countries who claim they will be unable to use them up before the expiry dates reach. 

Countries that are set to destroy vaccines include Malawi and Sudan, which have about 20,000 and 59,000 doses of the expired AstraZeneca vaccine respectively.

Both countries received these vaccines from the African Union but we're unable to administer them to their population by their expiry date which was the 13th of April.

The WHO has however, urged countries to hold on to the vaccines and not destroy even if they may have passed their expiry dates. According to them, it is still being studied if the Covid vaccines can last for longer. Currently, they only last for six months if properly stored in a refrigerator.

Another country that couldn't use up its vaccine is The Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC), which reported that it couldn't use most of the 1.7 million AstraZeneca doses it received under the global Covax scheme for poorer countries.

These vaccines, which are set to expire on the 24th of June are only being redistributed to other countries like Madagascar and Ghana.

Despite destroying about 59,000 vaccine doses gotten front the AU, South Sudan is still returning 72,000 doses gotten from the Covax scheme. In total, it received 132,000 Covax doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in March, all of which were set to expire in June.

With a population of over 11 million, South Sudan has only been able to administer 10,000 doses. The country is however retaining 50,000 to use before the expiry at the end of June.

In February, the African Union sent a million doses of vaccine which were set to expire in April to South Africa. The South African government, however, decided to not use them, questioning the vaccine's potency against the prevalent variant of Covid-19 in the country.

After a month of sitting in South Africa, the vaccines were distributed to other African countries, but with little time to administer.

One of the recipient countries was South Sudan, another was Nigeria. Nigeria however admitted that it would be unable to use up all the vaccines and some were redistributed to neighboring countries. Only Togo and the Gambia confirmed that they used up all the doses before expiry, according to the WHO.

On why African countries do not distribute the vaccines faster, Phionah Atuhebwe, a staff of the WHO in Africa says that it is due to inadequate preparation on the part of the receiving countries.

South Sudan, has explained that various issues have contributed to its inability to redistribute and use up all doses - including limited financial resources, and skepticism from health care workers. Another reason is how long it takes for the legislature to approve vaccines and training for health workers.

While Africa has carried out vaccinations against various diseases in the past, the Covid-19 vaccinations require a lot more speed and effort.

In countries like DRC, poor infrastructure seems to be contributing, as the poor road network makes vaccine delivery to rural areas a tedious process.

Another factor is hesitancy to take the Covid-19 vaccine due to rumors and widespread propaganda. In countries like South Africa, Sierra Leone, and DRC, vaccinations were momentarily put on hold due to safety concerns. In a study carried out by the CDC on Covid-19 vaccine perceptions, 41% of the people surveyed in DRC said they would not have a vaccine.

So far, Ghana is one of the few countries on the continent to have fully utilized its vaccine supplies.