The World Health Organisation (WHO), yesterday, alerted of the falsified COVISHIELD Coronavirus vaccine (Recombinant) in circulation as Nigeria commences rollout of the phase two of vaccination programme with 4,000,080 Moderna vaccines donated by the United States of America (USA).
The falsified products were reported to WHO in July and August. The genuine manufacturer of COVISHIELD (Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd.) confirmed that the falsified products were first reported at the patient level in Uganda and India.
According to a statement by WHO, falsified COVID-19 vaccines pose a serious risk to global public health and place an additional burden on vulnerable populations and health systems.
The United Nations apex health body said it is important to detect and remove these falsified products from circulation to prevent harm to patients. WHO also called for increased vigilance within the supply chains of countries and regions likely to be affected by these falsified products.
It noted: “Increased vigilance should include hospitals, clinics, health centers, wholesalers, distributors, pharmacies, and any other suppliers of medical products. All medical products must be obtained from authorized/licensed suppliers. The products’ authenticity and physical condition should be carefully checked.”
WHO, yesterday, also warned that Delta variant of COVID-19 is on the path to becoming the dominant strain worldwide as surge in the highly transmissible variant increases urgency for vaccinating large numbers of vulnerable people.
It said that rising infection rates resulting in increased hospitalisations are overwhelming health systems and leaving many countries in urgent need of life-saving oxygen.
WHO further warned that while four variants of concern currently dominate the epidemiology, there are fears that new, and possibly more dangerous variants of concern, may emerge.
WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said: “US$7.7 billion is needed urgently to address the Delta surge and put the world on track to ending the pandemic. This investment is a tiny portion of the amount governments are spending to deal with COVID-19. If these funds aren’t made available now to stop the transmission of Delta in the most vulnerable countries, we will undoubtedly all pay the consequences later in the year.”
About 40 million doses will be delivered to Nigeria from now till the third quarter of 2022 through the African Union’s African Vaccine Acquisitions Task Team (AVATT), while the country has committed a total of about $300 million for the order it has made.
