Doubts cast on the effectiveness of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe and the US have fuelled the fire of vaccine hesitancy in Africa, top health officials warned.
Africa is facing its own set of challenges in its fight against Covid-19 as countries struggle to inoculate remote populations scattered across the vast continent.
Mutahi Kagwe, the Kenyan Minister of Health, said a mobile registration platform used for elections was aiding the vaccine programme across the country, but said uncertainty remained a problem.
“The hesitancy has to do with global stories about efficacy and what is happening elsewhere,” he said.
“When European countries stopped using the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines, that got into people’s minds.
“The challenge is where people are doubtful about the vaccine, so there is a need for an intensive communication campaign to address that doubt.”
US health officials have raised concerns that AstraZeneca may have included “outdated information” in its coronavirus vaccine trial in Peru, Chile and the United States.
The results were released to much fanfare on March 22, but one day later the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases issued a statement claiming the trial could have provided an “incomplete view” of the efficacy data.
Their comments came after a number of countries, including Denmark and Norway, temporarily suspended the use of the Covid-19 jab in early March, following reports that a small number of people had developed clots after their injections.
A few days later the European Medicines Agency and the WHO ruled the AstraZeneca vaccine safe and effective.
The Oxford vaccine is the preferable choice for Africa, as a lack of cold-chain storage delivery networks can make it difficult to keep other Covid-19 vaccines at the very low temperatures required, in particular when transporting them to remote communities.
“Everywhere in the world you have vaccine hesitancy,” said Dr Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Health, Nigeria.
“In Nigeria, we have people who do not believe that Covid-19 exists.
"But we have enough people who do want it, and the legacy of polio has left us with a lot of infrastructure that is suitable to accept a vaccine for Covid, with cold storage facilities.
“We have a lot of experience in moving vaccines around the place, so hesitancy is not connected with the integrity of vaccines,” he said.