Sitting in my apartment in Geneva, my thoughts inevitably return to the streets of Quetta, Balochistan (Pakistan) where I led a network of community health workers in Quetta Block who went door to door to raise awareness and immunize children against poliomyelitis. Polio is 99% eradicated but remains endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Following […]
Category: Vaccines
COVID-19 vaccination in India: we need equity
Just a few days after starting its own COVID-19 vaccination program , India provided vaccines as grant- in-aid to other countries1 . This was in sharp contrast to some high-income countries which stockpile vaccines, and block proposals to suspend intellectual property rights in World Trade Organisation2. India now is in the midst of a […]
Africa Amid Growing Vaccine Nationalism
Among potential vaccines on clinical trials for the SARS-CoV-2 virus globally, the Ox1CoV-19 VIDA-Trials in Johannesburg is the sole candidate in Africa – a collaboration between Oxford University and University of Witswatersrand. This is worrisome despite capacities to conduct clinical trials in other countries including Senegal, Egypt and Algeria. Determined to increase this number, […]