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Lessons learned: During the Covid-19 pandemic, Global South countries such as South Africa were the last to get vaccines, ventilators and personal protective equipment, with these items delivered to wealthier nations first and surplus vaccines left to expire. Photo: David Harrison
COVID 19 PANDEMIC

Reform legislation to boost the Pandemic Treaty

Business interests and intellectual property laws privilege the wealthy and leave the rest scrabbling for life-saving medicine

  • Rafia Akram
7 min read
To figure out how to make an mRNA vaccine, the team at Afrigen Biologics had to “start reading and learning”. (Jay Caboz)
AFRIGEN BIOLOGICS

From start to finish: Five lessons for making mRNA jabs for TB

The need for a new tuberculosis vaccine is as urgent as ever, and now a local pharmaceutical company is joining the race to find one

  • Zano Kunene
11 min read
Effort: In an effort to get people vaccinated against Covid-19, Kenya’s health workers go door to door for people who live far from health facilities. The more benign Omnicron variant has also made people complacent. Photo: Briaqn Ongoro/AFP
AFRICA

Africa’s Covid neglect poses global danger

Low vaccination levels and high number of health-compromised populations make the continent a ‘breeding ground for variants’ that pose a global risk

  • Chris Bateman
8 min read
The World Health Organisation has enlisted a team of South African researchers to produce a new mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, but with no recipe to follow, it’s not an easy task. (Photo by Patrick Hertzog/AFP via Getty Images)
AFRICA

South Africa at the start of a Covid-19 vaccine the world has never seen

The World Health Organisation has enlisted a team of South African researchers to produce a new mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, but with no recipe to follow, it’s not an easy task

  • Laura López González
7 min read
Has Africa taken its foot off the pedal in the race to secure enough Covid-19 vaccines for all?
CAPRISA

South Africa can now keep Pfizer jabs in a bar fridge for a month

Vaccine roll-out will be easier now that Pfizer confirms the lifespan of its Covid-19 vaccine in a refrigerator is more than six times longer than first estimated

  • Aisha Abdool Karim
  • Joan Van Dyk
7 min read
(John McCann/M&G)
ACHAL PRABHALA

Africa could produce a Covid-19 vaccine sooner than you think

In mere months, Moderna transformed an old Polaroid factory in America into a state-of-the-art vaccine-production centre. Why can’t we do the same?

  • Laura López González
8 min read
A health official tries to drop a polio vaccine into the mouth of a child at Kaiama town in Bayelsa State.
ALBERT SABIN

Covid vaccines: Hope balanced with caution

As Covid vaccines near the manufacturing stage, a look at two polio vaccines provides valuable historical insights

  • Philip Machanick
6 min read