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By Karen Singh 
13h ago
Durban – SCIENTISTS warned that the Covid-19 candidate vaccine that has been described as 90% effective in preventing the virus may not be available to the general South African public due to global demand and strict storage requirements.
Epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist Professor Salim Abdool Karim spoke after Monday’s announcement by Pfizer and BioNTech SE that the Covid-19 vaccine candidate trial had been a success.
Abdool Karim said that while there were more than 200 different Covid-19 vaccine candidates, 11 of which were in advanced stages of testing, this vaccine provided new information and was the first to use messenger RNA technology.
“It is a game changer in scientific terms to know that a vaccine against this virus is possible and that we have one in the works,” he said.
Abdool Karim said the vaccine apparently worked particularly well, which was unusual at this early stage.
“It is still early, so we have to wait until we see their full results, but certainly the preliminary evidence is very reassuring,” he said.
He added that while the vaccine was good news, it was important to determine what the limitations were.
He said it was not yet clear how long the vaccine would protect a person against the virus, whether a single or double dose would be required, noting that it should be stored at very low temperatures.
“The vaccine should be stored at -70 ° C. In fact, it should be stored in refrigerators that are not normally available except in laboratories like mine,” he said.
As a result, Abdool Karim said that the vaccine would not be easy to implement due to stringent cold chain requirements. He said that due to the volume of doses that would need to be produced, it could be a while before South Africa has access to it.
“It is not a vaccine that we can use in our general population, we do not have refrigerators for it. Where it would be valuable is in the first groups that we plan to vaccinate, and they are health workers, “he said.
Abdool Karim said that South Africa was only able to receive a small number of doses due to global demand.
Dr Essack Mitha, principal investigator at the Newtown Clinical Research Center, which is a private clinical trial site, said he was unaware that South Africa expressed interest in obtaining the vaccine.
“I think it is possible, but I think it would take the Health Department to engage with Pfizer,” he said.
Mitha said that if Pfizer proved the trial’s effectiveness, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could grant an emergency use authorization to authorize production of the vaccine.
He said the vaccine was cheaper to make than traditional vaccines, produced faster and contained no animal by-products.
Mitha said the vaccine could be used by people who have allergies and those who have kosher or halaal requirements.
WITH the tropical heat, remote island communities, and a shortage of ultra-cold freezers, many Asian countries are not betting that Pfizer’s experimental vaccine will solve their Covid-19 crisis anytime soon.
The world applauded Monday when Pfizer Inc. announced that its injection, developed in conjunction with BioNTech SE, was more than 90% effective based on initial test results.
However, health experts warned that the vaccine, if approved, was not a silver bullet, especially since the genetic material from which it is made must be stored at temperatures of minus 70 ° C or less.
These requirements pose a particularly daunting challenge for countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, where intense heat is often compounded by poor infrastructure that will make it difficult to keep the “cold chain” intact during deliveries to rural areas and islands.
That’s a problem for everyone in the world, given that the World Health Organization estimates that around 70% of people need to be vaccinated to end the pandemic, and Asia alone is home to more than 4.6 billion, or three fifths. parts of the world population.
Some Asian countries are prioritizing containing the new coronavirus over looking to store vaccines, while others are looking for alternatives to the messenger RNA technology used by Pfizer that requires ultra-cold storage.
“In the cold chain requirement of -70ºC, that is an important requirement. We don’t have that facility, ”said Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duqu. “We will have to wait and see for now,” he added. “The technology that Pfizer is using is new technology. We have no experience with that, so the stakes can be high. “
Pfizer said it had developed detailed logistics plans and tools to support the transportation, storage and continuous temperature monitoring of the vaccines.
“We have also developed packaging and storage innovations to accommodate the variety of locations where we believe vaccines will be made,” he said.
However, even the wealthiest nations like South Korea and Japan are managing expectations.
“Storage will be a huge challenge for us,” said Fumie Sakamoto, infection control manager at St Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo. “I am not sure how well prepared our government is with regard to maintaining the cold chain. Hospitals in Japan don’t usually have ultra-cold freezers, but it’s about time we started thinking about vaccine logistics. “
Japan is among three Asia Pacific countries that have announced supply agreements for the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine. It has signed a deal for 120 million doses, while Australia has secured 10 million doses and China’s Fosun has secured 10 million doses for Hong Kong and Macau.
Japan’s PHC Corp, which supplies medical freezers, said demand had soared 150% this year and they were increasing production to meet demand.
Kwon Jun-wook, an official with South Korea’s Disease Prevention and Control Agency, said he wanted to first see how vaccination progresses in other countries and would thoroughly review his supply chain.
The country had recently experienced cold storage problems when it had to dispose of 5 million doses of flu vaccines because they were not stored at recommended temperatures.
A 2018 study commissioned by the agency found that only a quarter of the 2,200 private clinics surveyed had medical refrigerators, and 40% used household refrigerators.
The Mercury
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