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By Christophe Van Der Perre
DAKAR, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Senegal does not have the capacity
to store COVID-19 vaccines at ultra-low temperatures and would
prefer to receive vials that can be kept for longer under
ordinary refrigeration, the head of the country's vaccination
programme said on Monday.
A lack of cold storage means Senegal would only be able to
keep vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford
University, by China or Russia in the long term, as they do not
require a deep freeze, Ousseynou Badiane told Reuters.
Those being distributed by Moderna, which require
storage at minus 20 degrees Celsius (-4 F), and Pfizer
and BioNTech, which need to be kept at -70 degrees
Celsius, are less desirable. Senegal could store the Moderna
vaccine for 30 days and the Pfizer one for seven days but after
that they would be spoiled, Badiane added.
The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines "are not our first choice.
Our first choice is the vaccine that fits easily into the system
that exists, that doesn't require major investment," Badiane
told Reuters.
"If the vaccines are not used (in the right time frame) that
would be an enormous waste."
The situation in Senegal highlights the problems that poorer
countries with hot climates face in storing and distributing
vaccines, often in rural areas with unreliable power supplies.
It also shows how far behind some African countries are in
preparing to receive vaccines even as COVID-19 cases surge to
record levels.
Millions have already received inoculations in Western
countries and China, while Senegal is awaiting vaccines through
the World Health Organization-backed global COVAX scheme. This
programme is helping to finance deliveries to 92 developing
nations with limited or no means to buy vaccines on their own.
Senegal is no stranger to vaccination campaigns.
In four walk-in cold rooms in the capital Dakar, authorities
keep thousands of vials of yellow fever and hepatitis B vaccines
at between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius. It has one room that keeps
oral polio vaccines up to minus 25 degrees Celsius.
At the Fann hospital in Dakar, technicians are installing
seven new such rooms. But for now the lack of deep refrigeration
limits the country's options.
"If the option now is to take the (Pfizer or Moderna)
vaccines we... would have to redo all our logistics," Badiane
said.
(Writing by Edward McAllister;
Editing by Hereward Holland and Gareth Jones)
