The Nigeria Network of NGOs (NNNGO) has joined the People’s Vaccine Alliance and other campaigners to demand the approval of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver to ensure greater access to vaccines in developing countries.
NNNGO called on the United Kingdom, United States, France and Germany to compel pharmaceutical companies to transfer the technology needed to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines to global south manufacturers through all available mechanisms.
The network, in a statement, said the TRIPS waiver will revolutionise global vaccine manufacturing and unlock the productive capacity needed to end the pandemic.
The TRIPS waiver is also expected to build the scientific and industry networks needed to protect Africa and the rest of the world from future disease outbreaks.
Data from World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that Africa has so far received about 500 million Covid-19 vaccine doses and administered 327 million.
The global health body noted that Africa’s current case fatality ratio from the Covid-19 remains the highest in the world
‘Although officially, the records show that the causalities of the pandemic were more in developed nations, the reality is that countries in the African continent recorded major loss of lives due to the pandemic’, the Executive Director of NNNGO, Oluseyi Oyebisi, noted.
‘But lack of concrete data is likely why we may never have the figures to show a truer reflection of the impact of the pandemic on our continent’.
NNNGO also called on African governments to ensure women and other vulnerable groups have equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines and scale investments in public health care services.
The rate of Covid-19 vaccination in Africa, according to the WHO remains low, with expert blaming vaccine inequality for the low level of vaccination.
The People’s Vaccine Alliance had criticised Europe for ‘betraying Africa’ by blocking the TRIPS waiver and hoarding 55 millions of doses which expired at the end of February 2022.
The African Union (AU) had accused vaccine manufacturers of denying African countries a fair chance to buy Covid-19 vaccines and urged manufacturing countries to lift export restrictions on vaccines and their components.
WHO recently announced Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia as the first six countries that will receive the technology needed to produce mRNA Covid-19 vaccines in Africa.
Source: NNNGO
Photo source: NNNGO
