The jab was the second to be approved by the independent Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency .
The AstraZeneca jab only provides about 10 per cent protection against mild to moderate COVID-19 disease caused the South African variant, the Bhekisisa reported. This is way below the World Health Organisation recommended 50 per cent protection.“South Africa discovered that these vaccines had some weaknesses in protecting their own variant which is quite peculiar,” Nigeria’s health minister, Osagie Ehanire said last week.
As viruses mutate and give rise to new variants, this can affect how well certain vaccines work against them. Research shows this mutation contributes to the virus evading antibodies from COVID-19 patients against SARS-CoV-2.Emerging data for the AstraZeneca vaccine in the Lancet preprint revealed that the jab is most likely to block transmission after a single dose.
One key characteristic of this vaccine is that it can be kept at normal refrigerator temperatures of between two and eight degrees Celsius making it the most suitable for developing country such as Nigeria. Since then, scientists have asked questions about the optimal dose and interval. A preprint manuscript in The Lancet shows the vaccine demonstrated 82.4 per cent efficacy after two standard doses three months apart.Another major concern scientists are raising about AstraZeneca is on how safe the vaccines are on older people.
Nigeria Latest News, Nigeria Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.