After a long time, the arrival of several batches of vaccines against covid-19 on the African continent was announced, as it was one of the most urgent requests of the inhabitants. However, health personnel have noticed that people now do not want to be immunized.
According to a report by the ‘Reuters’ agency, in different parts of Africa, especially in Ghana, the perception has been created that the coronavirus is not a significant threat because a large part of the population has already been infected.
In addition, only 17% of the 1.3 billion inhabitants of Africa have the complete vaccination schedulewhich marks a big difference compared to most countries in the world that have more than 70% of their population immunized.
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At one point, Africans were desperately asking their governments for vaccines as they were afraid of dying from the virus. However, now that the biologics have arrived on the mainland, the immunization rate fell by 23% since Marchaccording to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
“If we had gotten the vaccines sooner, these kinds of things wouldn’t have happened … At first everyone really wanted it, but we didn’t have the vaccines,” said Christina Odei, COVID-19 team leader at the Mamprobi clinic, in Accra, Ghana.
In addition, Rahab Mwaniki, coordinator of the advocacy group People’s Vaccine Alliance in Africa, indicated that citizens felt let down by the West, since they did not support them when they really needed it.
This panorama worries more and more the specialists, who affirm that lack of vaccination increases the risk of new variants of the virus emerging that may be more infectious or even more deadly.
Additionally, cases of omicron subvariants have been on the rise on the continent, increasing the risk of a fifth wave of the virus as governments have abandoned travel restrictions and mandatory biosecurity measures.
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Health experts assure that, now with vaccination, even more resources are needed than those required at the beginning of the pandemic, although the continent’s precarious health systems are not able to take advantage of capital due to lack of clothing and personnel. .
According to Amit Dar, the bank’s human development director for Eastern and Southern Africa, the The World Bank allocated 3,600 million dollars (more than 14 billion pesos) to sub-Saharan Africa to help the health emergency, but of this capital only 520 million (2 billion pesos) have been used.
Health personnel have taken it upon themselves to carry out mobile campaigns to promote vaccination in countries such as Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Kenya, but They do not have the necessary equipment to keep biologicals refrigerated, so they could expire quickly.
Even in Ghana, one of the fastest growing economies in Africa, there is a deficit of 30 million dollars (120 billion pesos) in financing, so the cold chain required by vaccines to carrying out mobile campaigns.
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The same happens in Niger, where only 6% of the population is immunized. On the other hand, in countries like Zambia and Sierra Leone, public hospitals cannot bear the expenses of the staff in terms of salaries, transportation and food, so the sessions have not been carried out correctly.
Due to the lack of equipment to maintain the vaccines and the disinterest of the population, also caused by the affectation of other more deadly diseases that haunt the continent; have led to ever lower immunization rates.
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