COVID-19 Vaccines: Ensuring Social Justice and Health Equity among Refugees in Africa.

Emery Manirambona,Annabel Killen,Oliver Hague,Luiza Farache Trajano,Menelas Nkeshimana,Laura Wilkins,Don Eliseo Lucero-Prisno Iii

doi:10.5334/aogh.3415

Abstract

COVID-19 poses a particular threat to refugees in Africa. Overcrowded living conditions and lack of effective sanitation make refugees highly vulnerable to infection. Furthermore, migration has the potential to undermine measures to control viral spread. As a result, vaccination of the refugee community in Africa must be considered key in the vaccination plan to end the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Although the WHO has approved vaccines for emergency use worldwide in vulnerable groups through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) program, there is a lack of a strategy for achieving vaccination in the African refugee population. A specific strategy for refugee vaccination must be among the top priorities at national, regional, and global levels to ensure all refugees and asylum seekers in African countries have equitable and quality vaccine assistance regardless of displacement, statelessness, and financial hardship. We call on leaders in Africa and worldwide to ensure that refugee vaccination is a priority to protect this highly at-risk population and achieve an end to the current pandemic.

Highlights

Such measures are important to curtail transmission, adherence is difficult in resource-limited conditions
Since February 2021, an initiative co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI), and the World Health Organization (WHO) rolled out COVID-19 vaccine doses in some African countries, prioritising frontline health workers and clinically vulnerable groups
The African Union, WHO-Africa, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees WFP (UNHCR), WFP, and other regional or international agencies are well placed to support this population. We call on these multinational leaders and stakeholders to work with national governments in prioritising refugees who fulfil the same criteria as the citizens and other vulnerable groups in Africa in COVID-19 vaccine distribution

Summary

Introduction

Such measures are important to curtail transmission, adherence is difficult in resource-limited conditions. COVID-19 Vaccines: Ensuring Social Justice and Health Equity among Refugees in Africa. Since February 2021, an initiative co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI), and the WHO rolled out COVID-19 vaccine doses in some African countries, prioritising frontline health workers and clinically vulnerable groups.

Results

Conclusion