RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Vaccinology in sub-Saharan Africa
JF BMJ Global Health
JO BMJ Global Health
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP e001363
DO 10.1136/bmjgh-2018-001363
VO 4
IS 5
A1 Jennifer Moïsi
A1 Shabir Ahmed Madhi
A1 Helen Rees
YR 2019
UL http://gh.bmj.com/content/4/5/e001363.abstract
AB 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.