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COVID-19 vaccines for children and adolescents in Africa: aligning our priorities to situational realities

The evolving COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global public health crisis that continues to have a major impact on the African continent. Most countries within Africa are facing significant challenges vaccinating their populations for COVID-19. Inadequate COVID-19 vaccine supply, weaknesses in...

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Autores principales: Govender, Kaymarlin, Nyamaruze, Patrick, McKerrow, Neil, Meyer-Weitz, Anna, Cowden, Richard G
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8844950/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35153193
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-007839
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author Govender, Kaymarlin
Nyamaruze, Patrick
McKerrow, Neil
Meyer-Weitz, Anna
Cowden, Richard G
author_facet Govender, Kaymarlin
Nyamaruze, Patrick
McKerrow, Neil
Meyer-Weitz, Anna
Cowden, Richard G
author_sort Govender, Kaymarlin
collection PubMed
description The evolving COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global public health crisis that continues to have a major impact on the African continent. Most countries within Africa are facing significant challenges vaccinating their populations for COVID-19. Inadequate COVID-19 vaccine supply, weaknesses in health system infrastructure, COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation, and ineffective health risk communication are contributing to low adult vaccination rates on the continent. Without sufficient COVID-19 vaccine coverage on the African continent, the prolonged social, economic and health impacts of this public health crisis are likely to exacerbate pre-existing social-structural issues in this part of the world. In this paper, we highlight trends in SARS-CoV-2 infections among children and adolescents (CA), compare COVID-19 vaccination patterns in Africa to those in high-income countries, and discuss some of the benefits, challenges and unknowns associated with vaccinating CA for COVID-19. In light of ongoing COVID-19 vaccine supply challenges and the slow progress that the African continent is making towards vaccinating the adult population, we suggest that the immediate priority for Africa is to accelerate COVID-19 vaccinations among adults (particularly high-risk populations) and vulnerable CA (ie, those who are immunocompromised and/or living with certain medical conditions). Accelerating the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines and rapidly achieving high levels of vaccination coverage in the adult population will free up capacity to vaccinate CA sooner rather than later. While we hope that COVID-19 vaccines will soon become available to CA throughout Africa, countries must continue to prioritise non-pharmaceutical interventions.
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spelling pubmed-88449502022-02-16 COVID-19 vaccines for children and adolescents in Africa: aligning our priorities to situational realities Govender, Kaymarlin Nyamaruze, Patrick McKerrow, Neil Meyer-Weitz, Anna Cowden, Richard G BMJ Glob Health Analysis The evolving COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global public health crisis that continues to have a major impact on the African continent. Most countries within Africa are facing significant challenges vaccinating their populations for COVID-19. Inadequate COVID-19 vaccine supply, weaknesses in health system infrastructure, COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation, and ineffective health risk communication are contributing to low adult vaccination rates on the continent. Without sufficient COVID-19 vaccine coverage on the African continent, the prolonged social, economic and health impacts of this public health crisis are likely to exacerbate pre-existing social-structural issues in this part of the world. In this paper, we highlight trends in SARS-CoV-2 infections among children and adolescents (CA), compare COVID-19 vaccination patterns in Africa to those in high-income countries, and discuss some of the benefits, challenges and unknowns associated with vaccinating CA for COVID-19. In light of ongoing COVID-19 vaccine supply challenges and the slow progress that the African continent is making towards vaccinating the adult population, we suggest that the immediate priority for Africa is to accelerate COVID-19 vaccinations among adults (particularly high-risk populations) and vulnerable CA (ie, those who are immunocompromised and/or living with certain medical conditions). Accelerating the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines and rapidly achieving high levels of vaccination coverage in the adult population will free up capacity to vaccinate CA sooner rather than later. While we hope that COVID-19 vaccines will soon become available to CA throughout Africa, countries must continue to prioritise non-pharmaceutical interventions. BMJ Publishing Group 2022-02-12 /pmc/articles/PMC8844950/ /pubmed/35153193 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-007839 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Analysis
Govender, Kaymarlin
Nyamaruze, Patrick
McKerrow, Neil
Meyer-Weitz, Anna
Cowden, Richard G
COVID-19 vaccines for children and adolescents in Africa: aligning our priorities to situational realities
title COVID-19 vaccines for children and adolescents in Africa: aligning our priorities to situational realities
title_full COVID-19 vaccines for children and adolescents in Africa: aligning our priorities to situational realities
title_fullStr COVID-19 vaccines for children and adolescents in Africa: aligning our priorities to situational realities
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19 vaccines for children and adolescents in Africa: aligning our priorities to situational realities
title_short COVID-19 vaccines for children and adolescents in Africa: aligning our priorities to situational realities
title_sort covid-19 vaccines for children and adolescents in africa: aligning our priorities to situational realities
topic Analysis
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8844950/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35153193
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-007839
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