By A Correspondent- As the entire SADC region struggles with the scarcity of the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at the same time experiencing the third wave of the pandemic this winter season, the German government and investors are jumping to the rescue and showering the Southern African Development Community region with investment pledges in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
This welcomed development is also in line with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) call for rich countries to help distressed Third World countries in obtaining Covid-19 vaccines and medical supplies.
The only way to fight and contain a pandemic is to combat it in all countries globally together. Some German politicians, such as global health expert and health politician Dr Georg Kippels (MP), who has long advocated close international cooperation, are now calling for increased commitment.
Worldwide statistics show that 24 doses of the vaccine have already been vaccinated per 100 people, with only 2 doses per 100 people in Africa.
Covid-19 vaccine deliveries under the WHO-supported Covax programme began earlier this year, with several African nations signing up and also receiving the vaccine doses.
China, Russia, India and the United Arab Emirates, with a high economic and political interest in the continent, are also donating vaccines to African countries, with some of these countries having already used up the initial vaccine supplies they received under the Covax programme.
What seems to be lacking in the region are virus testing initiatives and medical devices.
A German pharmaceutical company, NanoRepro AG, is now looking to fill the testing gap, launching in South Africa first in a few months’ time before also getting involved in the entire SASDC region. The company is consequently also launching a Covid-19 self-testing kit.
NanoRepro AG specialises in the development, manufacture and distribution of rapid medical tests (self-diagnostics) for home and clinical use both domestically and internationally. To date, the company has introduced 24 rapid tests, all of which (products) have a minimum accuracy of 97% in comparison to laboratory measurements and are easy to read (5-10 minutes).The pharmaceutical company has several product lines in the areas of family planning, disease detection (preventive health care) as well as food intolerances, allergies, drugs and infectious diseases.
The company’s Managing Director, Ms Lisa Juengst, said in an interview that they were now looking for suitable partners in the SADC region with whom they could work in confidence and possibly invest in production in the future.
“After the recent visit of German Health Minister Jens Spahn to South Africa, there is obviously a strong interest that German companies should get more involved in knowledge transfer. We have heard from South African experts that self-test kits are not only needed for Covid-19, but also for other diseases such as tuberculosis. As a company, we will be holding talks in southern Africa in the forthcoming months.”After the recent visit of German Health Minister Jens Spahn to South Africa, there is obviously a strong interest that German companies should get more involved in knowledge transfer. We have heard from South African experts that self-test kits are not only needed for Covid-19, but also for other diseases such as tuberculosis. As a company, we will be holding talks in southern Africa in the upcoming weeks and months and will also be looking at the issue of pharmaceutical training. We may also ask the German government and the EU in Brussels for appropriate support for this,” she said.
“We very much hope that we can motivate the German government not only to invest in the production of vaccines together with BioNTech, but also to support the SADC countries in obtaining simple tests to detect Covid-19 and other diseases such as HIV and TB. The government in Berlin also knows that on average about 90% of people in southern Africa are infected with TB, and there are hardly any proper tests available at the moment. Therefore, the German government will not only support the people on the neighbouring continent in the production of vaccines, but also work towards ensuring that there are high-quality tests available. A pandemic must be fought worldwide and in all countries in order to defeat it,” she emphasises.
Ms Juengst explains in the interview that the pilot project will probably be located in the Western Cape.
“NanoRepro AG is looking to establish a subsidiary in the Western Cape in the coming months. The company intends to invest a significant sum in the project in order to grow rapidly in the South African and SADC market and to convince with excellent quality and reliability.
We have focused on South Africa because the country still has a high number of Covid 19 cases and virus mutations, the third wave of infection is just beginning and President Cyril Ramaphosa is also making concerted efforts to control the virus, in line with the WHO motto ‘Test, test, test’! That is the most important tool against the pandemic,” she said.
Germany has already pledged 50 million Euros, about ZAR 817 million, to help South Africa producing vaccines. Recently, the Western country’s health minister, Jens Spahn (MP), held talks with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and French President Emmanuel Macron, saying they wanted to help not only South Africa but the entire region with Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing knowledge and technology.
In addition to Covid-19, Minister Spahn told DW after the meeting with President Ramaphosa that they also want to promote research into “neglected infectious diseases” in Africa.
Across the continent, South Africa suffers the most from the coronavirus and the Covid-19 vaccination campaign is also rather slow, due to several factors.
These include a delayed initial vaccination programme caused by inadequate logistics of the vaccine from AstraZeneca, as well as strong concerns about the vaccine’s effectiveness against a new variant of the pandemic.