NIGERIAN health officials have told the World Health Organisation (WHO) that they are interested in participating in the trials of vaccines for the coronavirus pandemic and would even supply volunteers to participate in the project.
Since it broke out in China’s Wuhan province late last year, the coronavirus pandemic has spread to 212 countries, affected 3.48m people, leading to 244,803 deaths. As a result, scientists worldwide have been working around the clock looking for a vaccine, with the WHO leading the fight to find a medically accepted drug, which can be universally administered.
Dr Fiona Braka, the WHO representative in Nigeria, has revealed that the government has expressed an interest in being part of the vaccine project. She also said that 89 vaccines are being developed globally, including seven in clinical evaluation and several therapeutics in clinical trials to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Nigeria has also expressed interest to be part of this solidarity trial and efforts are underway to start the process in Nigeria too. Together with global health actors and partners, over the past week, WHO launched the Access to Covid-19 Tools ACT Accelerator, a global collaboration to accelerate development for equitable access to new Covid-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.
“We have a total of 89 vaccines that are in development globally, including seven in clinical evaluation and several therapeutics are in clinical trials. WHO is committed to ensuring that as medicines and vaccines are developed, they are shared equitably with all countries and people. We do have the solidarity trial which is an international clinical trial to help find an effective treatment for Covid-19, launched by the WHO and partners.
“More than 100 countries have joined the solidarity trial and to date, over 1,200 patients have been randomized from the first five countries to evaluate the safety and efficacy full drug and drug combinations,” De Braka added. According to her, the WHO has launched various working groups to accelerate various aspects of vaccine development.
