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Review
. 2019 Sep 20;4(5):e001363.
doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2018-001363. eCollection 2019.

Vaccinology in sub-Saharan Africa

Jennifer Moïsi  1 , Shabir Ahmed Madhi  2   3 , Helen Rees  3   4
Affiliations
Review

Vaccinology in sub-Saharan Africa

Jennifer Moïsi et al. BMJ Glob Health. .

Abstract

We undertook a landscape analysis of vaccinology research and training in sub-Saharan Africa in order to identify key gaps and opportunities for capacity development in the field. We conducted interviews with regional and global immunisation experts, reviewed university and research centre websites, searched the scientific literature and analysed donor databases as part of our mapping exercise. We found that (1) few vaccinology training programmes are available in the region; (2) vaccinology research sites are numerous but unevenly distributed across countries and subregions and of widely varying capacity; (3) donor funding favours HIV, tuberculosis and malaria vaccine development over other high-burden diseases; (4) lack of vaccine design, manufacturing and regulatory capacity slows the progress of new vaccines through the research and development pipeline and (5) vaccine implementation research garners limited support. Regional efforts to strengthen African vaccinology expertise should develop advanced vaccinology training programmes, support clinical trial and implementation research sites in geographic areas with limited capacity and conduct multidisciplinary research to help design, license and roll out new vaccines.

Keywords: capacity building; immunization; sub-saharan africa; vaccinology.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: JCM was an independent consultant at the time the study was conducted. Previously, she worked for Agence de Médecine Preventive, where she received research funding from Pfizer and GSK. She is now an employee of Pfizer Vaccines. SAM receives research funding from Pfizer, GSK, Novartis and Biovac.

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