Nigeria is on the verge of losing more donations from multilateral agencies and other countries following the expiration of about one million doses of donated COVID-19 vaccines.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, had admitted that some of the vaccines expired but refused to reveal the quantity which Reuters news agency put at one million. Ehanire also stated that the doses were a few months or weeks from expiration before Nigeria received them and their rollout was further delayed by logistical challenges.
This is despite the fact that N20bn had been earmarked for the distribution of the vaccines early in the year.
Ehanire on Wednesday justified the expiration of over one million donated doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. According to Reuters, the expiration was one of the biggest single losses of doses
The vaccine doses, which according to the news medium were donated through COVAX, were also said to have arrived the country within four-to-six weeks of expiry and could not be used in time, despite efforts by health authorities.
“Nigeria is doing everything it can. But it is struggling with short shelf life vaccines” Reuters quoted a source as saying.
But Ehanire in a statement he personally signed and released on Wednesday said that the vaccines were of residual shelf lives and there were cases of logistics bottlenecks.
He said, “Nigeria has, of late enjoyed the generosity of several, mainly European countries, who have offered us doses of COVID-19 vaccines out of their stockpiles, free of charge, through COVAX or AVAT facility. These donations are always well acknowledged and thankfully received. However, some of them had residual shelf lives of only few months that left us very short time, some just weeks to clear them, after deduction of time to transport, clear, distribute and deliver to our users.
“If such vaccines arrive back-to-back or are many, logistics bottlenecks occasionally arise”.
Ehanire warned that henceforth, Nigeria would no longer receive vaccines with a short shelf life.
However, several insiders told The PUNCH that the standard practice was for Nigeria to have returned the doses or donated them to other African countries that were prepared to distribute them immediately.
But Nigeria left the vaccine doses on the shelf and allowed them to expire thereby depriving others from using them.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention had in May commended the Democratic Republic of Congo for its “remarkable and strategic move” in returning the vaccine doses that they could not administer on time.
“The DRC has not wasted vaccines …They recognised that they were not going to use all the vaccines in a timely fashion and then called on the COVAX and UNICEF to take those excess vaccines and redistribute them … We acknowledge their wisdom in doing that,” John Nkengasong, the director of Africa CDC, had said at a news conference.
Africa CDC, it was learnt, had advised that all vaccines that may expire be quickly distributed even as Africa countries have continued to witness a low vaccine rollout.
“Nigeria shouldn’t have collected those vaccines in the first place. Also, Nigeria should have informed the donor so that the doses would be redistributed. The expiration of one million doses is the highest we have ever heard anywhere in the world,” a top health official said, requesting not to be named because he was not authorised to speak.
But the Director-General, Nigeria Institute of Medical Research, Prof. Babatunde Salako, said Nigeria should not be blamed for the development.
Salako also said Nigeria needed to step up its vaccination campaign.
“I suspect that those that gave us the vaccines did so when they also noticed it will soon expire, so we really didn’t have enough time to use them all. Vaccine apathy is a major issue here,” he said.
Nigeria received 700,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the UK in August, 800,000 from Canada in September and 500,000 from France in October while it received four million doses of the Moderna vaccine and 3.6m Pfizer doses from the US in October as well.
In an interview with The PUNCH, Professor of Medical Virology, University of Maiduguri, Marycelin Baba, told our correspondent that the news about the expired vaccines would take a toll on the vaccination drive. This is as the expert also warned of reduction in the influx of donated doses.
She said, “The news may have a toll on the vaccination drive in the country and yes, donors might feel reluctant in donating more doses. We keep talking about vaccine equity, but here we are wasting vaccines. In my opinion, the donors are not to be blamed. They own the vaccines and they would have informed you of the shelf life. You have the choice to accept and the choice to decline the offer.”
Another health ministry official, however, said the donor countries ought to stop giving Nigeria and other African nations doses with low shelf life.
“Of course the minister did not reveal the number of doses lost in order not to upset donors who may want to stop giving us vaccines since they have now shut us out of their country. But these donors should also stop sending doses that are close to expiration. We are not a dumping ground,” he said.
A former National Chairman of the Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria, Prof. Tanimola Akande, also corroborated Baba’s claims.
He said, “It is a good thing that it was observed because if it was not observed then people would be given something that has expired and they will be given false confidence.”
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency had said in August that vaccine doses donated by the United Kingdom would expire by the end of September.
The Executive Secretary of the NPHCDA, Faisal Shuaibu, had however, stated that despite the concerns, he was sure that the country would exhaust the doses before the expiration of the vaccine.
He said “We have two batches of AstraZeneca, one batch will expire by the end of September while the other batch will expire by the end of October.
“However, we are certain that the doses will be exhausted before their expiration. There has been a huge turnout of people wanting to be vaccinated. We would not have taken them if we were not sure that they would be exhausted.”
The NPHCDA director said the Federal Government had adequate doses of vaccines in store to cover a large percentage of the population, adding that the country was awaiting about 57 million doses of the vaccine.
“We have more than enough vaccines in Nigeria for now. We also have a pool of vaccines, almost 57 million vaccines that are awaiting shipment. There are about 40 million already in the country and we have secured about 90million doses.”
