Africa’s vaccine ambitions

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 3 August 2021

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Africa is a continent of 1.3 billion people, but makes less than 1% of the lifesaving vaccines it needs. The continent’s 54 nations are almost entirely dependent on agencies like Unicef and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, for these essential pharmaceuticals. But the pandemic of 2020 has been a harsh lesson in the dangers of relying on other countries and agencies for support. Numerous vaccine clinical trials have been conducted in Africa, yet these nations still find themselves at back of the queue for Covid-19 jabs. However, efforts are now underway to change this. At a conference in early April, African leaders pledged to manufacture 60% of the vaccines they need by 2040. But is this an achievable goal?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading the documentary from the BBC World Service.
0:04.4	In this edition, Africa's Vaccine Ambitions with me, Rod O'Diamboe,
0:09.0	I'll be looking at efforts underway to turn vaccine manufacturing in Africa into a successful homegrown industry.
0:17.0	Hi Professor Happie.
0:19.0	Hi Rhoda, nice to meet you too.
0:21.0	I believe you're in Osun? Yes I'm in a room, yeah.
0:26.0	Osun is not a popular city in Nigeria like Lagos, but it's known for its cultural
0:31.8	and religious festivals that it holds every August.
0:35.6	It's also the home of Redeemers University where Professor Christian Happy runs the African
0:41.5	Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases.
0:45.0	His lab was the first to sequence the Sers COVID-2 virus in Sub-Saharan Africa.
0:51.0	You are a pathogen hunter. So have you been able to develop any
0:57.8	COVID-19 vaccine since the beginning of the pandemic? The answer to our question is yes, we came up with a solution late last year in collaboration
1:08.1	with my colleague at University of Cambridge and this vaccine stemmed from the fact that prior to COVID, we have been working on developing a vaccine for a bolar, lasa fever, and monkeybox.
1:21.0	And when COVID stroke, we basically just shifted that technology that we have
1:25.2	developed toward COVID. Now the point where we got stuck was to attract the resources to move
1:30.8	this to clinical trial. Professor Happy's story points to a problem which is taking on a new urgency in the time of a pandemic.
1:38.0	Africa is a continent of over 50 nations and 1.3 billion people, yet it imports 99% of the life-saving vaccines it
1:47.8	needs to keep its population safe. A situation which has come to have dire consequences right now with a pandemic rampaging
1:56.2	through the largely unvaccinated countries across the continent.
2:00.3	I'm Rod O'Jiambo, BBC Health Correspondent in Kenya, and in this program, Africa's vaccine ambitions
2:09.6	on the BBC World Service, I'll be looking at efforts to turn the situation around and
	...

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