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While awaiting a vaccine, don’t forget to protect yourself & avoid the 3Cs, says WHO Rep
View(s):With COVID-19 vaccines on the mind of many Sri Lankans, the Sunday Times asked the Country Representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Sri Lanka, Dr. Razia Pendse for her views.
Dr. Razia Pendse
Q. What is the plan that Sri Lanka should have in place with regard to securing a vaccine if and when one is produced against COVID-19?
A. Phase III trials for some candidate vaccines began in July 2020. We expect that the results from this large-scale trial phase will begin to come in at the end of the year, possibly from end of November. After the data is available, regulatory authorities will need to assess the safety and efficacy and manufacturing for approved vaccines will begin. Given this timeline, we expect doses to begin arriving in countries in the middle of 2021 (second or third quarter). A limited number of vaccines may be available for high-risk groups starting from the first quarter of 2021.
While the country awaits the approval and subsequent delivery of vaccine doses, it is important to have a national plan for the deployment of a COVID-19 vaccine. This includes budgeting/financing framework, regulatory requirements, prioritization of population groups, health system requirements, mechanisms/platforms for the delivery of vaccines, mechanisms to monitor adverse events following vaccination, and communication strategies for demand generation and to improve community acceptance.
It’s important to remember that a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine is still months away and it will be even longer before it is available to a large number of people. That is why it is important to continue using public health tools and measures that we know are effective in preventing the infection and breaking the chain of transmission.
Everyone has the responsibility to protect themselves and others: stay at least one metre away from others, clean your hands regularly, practise respiratory etiquette, wear a mask and stay at home when you feel unwell.
Avoid the 3Cs – crowded places, close contact settings and confined and enclosed spaces. Wherever possible, increase and improve ventilation.
Research by the Sunday Times found that there are 47 candidate vaccines in clinical evaluation, according to the WHO’s DRAFT landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines, with 155 vaccines in pre-clinical evaluation.
The leading candidate vaccines are:
· BNT162b2 vaccine candidate of the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German biotechnology company partner BioNTech – A preliminary analysis given in a press release and nothing peer-reviewed suggested the vaccine is more than 90% effective at preventing COVID-19 symptoms. As it was not from a peer-reviewed source, the authenticity of the 90% was being questioned.
Almost 80% of the limited supply of this two-dose vaccine has been ordered by the United Kingdom, United States of America, European Union, Canada and Japan.
AZD1222 vaccine candidate of AstraZeneca/Oxford – Results of its final clinical stages are due before the end of the year.
| Whole world must benefit from Covid vaccine: WHO chief GENEVA, Saturday (AFP)- The head of the World Health Organization hailed the rapid progress towards a Covid-19 vaccine but insisted Friday that every country must reap the benefits. “A vaccine will be a vital tool for controlling the pandemic, and we’re encouraged by the preliminary results of clinical trials released this week,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, in closing the WHO’s annual assembly. US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech announced Monday that their candidate vaccine had proven 90 percent effective in ongoing final phase trials involving more than 40,000 people, less than a year after the novel coronavirus emerged in China. “Never in history has vaccine research progressed so quickly. We must apply the same urgency and innovation to ensuring that all countries benefit from this scientific achievement,” said Tedros. The coronavirus has killed nearly 1.3 million people worldwide while more than 52.7 million cases have been registered, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP. However, the tallies probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections. Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases. Tedros said the pandemic had shown there was an urgent need for “a globally-agreed system for sharing pathogen materials and clinical samples”, to facilitate the rapid development of Covid-19 vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics as “global public goods”. He said the system could not wait for bilateral agreements that could take years to negotiate. “We are proposing a new approach that would include a repository for materials housed by WHO in a secure Swiss facility; an agreement that sharing materials into this repository is voluntary; that WHO can facilitate the transfer and use of the materials; and a set of criteria under which WHO would distribute them,” said Tedros. The UN health agency’s director-general thanked Thailand and Italy for offering to provide materials and pioneer the new approach, and Switzerland for offering a laboratory. WHO member states on Friday approved a resolution on strengthening preparedness for health emergencies. The resolution calls on countries “to prioritise at the highest political level the improvement of, and coordination for, health emergency preparedness.” It also urges countries to continue developing their capacities for detecting infectious diseases, in compliance with the International Health Regulations. The regulations on global health security, approved in 2005 and entering into force two years later, notably regulate how a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) is declared. They also include specific measures to be implemented at ports, airports and border posts in order to limit the spread of risk. Several voices were raised questioning the effectiveness of this process in attempting to prevent or rein in the Covid-19 pandemic. Washington accused Tedros of being too slow to declare a PHEIC over the new coronavirus. The WHO chief himself has been critical of its binary on-or-off nature, with no levels of alert in between. The resolution adopted on Friday asks Tedros to seek possible “complementary mechanisms” that could be used to alert member states “about the severity and/or magnitude of a public health emergency in order to mobilise necessary support and to facilitate international coordination”. He is expected to deliver his ideas at the next WHO annual meeting. Besides discussing the pandemic, the WHO assembly agreed on a new plan to defeat meningitis by 2030; increased action on epilepsy and other neurological disorders; and a strategy to speed up the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem. | |