Feature Stories

In December 2020, South Africa detected the Beta variant and in May 2021 the Delta variant, thanks to robust genomic surveillance. Professor Tulio De Oliveira, a renowned bioinformatician who identified the Beta variant, explains the criticality of genomic sequencing. Professor De Oliveira is the Director of the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) and Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI) based in South Africa.

COVID-19 has had a catastrophic impact on lives and livelihoods. But it has also spurred impactful scientific research that gave the world a vaccine in record time and thrust genomic sequencing at the centre of pandemic response.

Local leaders, working with over 2300 community mobilizers and 1450 vaccination teams, were crucial to the success of a rapid COVID-19 vaccination drive that saw 52 000 people vaccinated across Cameroon in just five days in July.

Myths and misinformation around COVID-19 vaccines are rife in Lesotho, where over 85% of nearly 500 health workers surveyed recently report widespread misconceptions.

A Medical Doctor with an MSc in Public Health and over 20 years of experience, Dr Carolina Leite led Cabo Verde’s programme to fight malaria and waterborne diseases and served as Director of Patient Management, Medical Records and Statistics at the Agostinho Neto Central Hospital in Praia before joining the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009.

The World Health Organization (WHO), a South African consortium and partners from COVAX, are working to set-up a technology transfer hub for mRNA vaccines in South Africa to help boost and scale up vaccine production in Africa.

When a man in Temessadou M’Boket – a village in the densely forested southern Guinea region – died in early August 2021 after suffering fever, headache and haemorrhage, a medical team was quickly dispatched, and within hours of his death, laboratory analysis revealed that he had been ill with Marburg.

As COVID-19 vaccines are rolled out in Africa, understanding the effectiveness of these vaccines in real world settings is crucial for countries to plan and refine their vaccination programmes and other public health measures.

Africa’s largest-ever vaccination drive is well underway.52 African countries are rolling out COVID-19 vaccines and over 73 million doses have been administered on the continent.  

With 620 million COVID-19 vaccine doses set to arrive in Africa through COVAX alone by the end of 2021, African countries are set to roll out a range of different vaccines, each with their own unique storage, transport and administration requirements.