After a month of the vaccine rollout in Ghana, there have been a lot of gains as well as indications of some measures that need to be put in place in order to enhance the country's chance of vaccinating about 20 million Ghanaians and achieving herd immunity.
So far, according to figures from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) website, some 555,259 people have been vaccinated, with the country's active Covid-19 count falling below 2,000 (1,775).
Speaking on the AM Show Thursday, Dr. Yaw Bediako, an immunologist with the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) of the University of Ghana, intimated that Ghana has done well in terms of the number of people vaccinated within this brief period.
Touching on the possibility of different Covid-19 vaccines being mixed, Dr. Bediako also mentioned that, getting one shot each of different vaccines from different manufacturers, is a possibility.
Already, there has been some purported 'hoarding' of vaccines by India, for example, that has left some countries that are waiting for deliveries of AstraZeneca vaccines under the Covax regime, to put their vaccination drives on hold - at least for a while.
But according to Dr. Bediako, "There is growing evidence that you could, actually, improve the efficacy of the vaccines by combining them."
He went on to elaborate on how, unlike regular medication which may not be good to mix with other medicine, vaccines are somewhat different.
Per Dr. Bediako's explanation, mixing Covid-19 vaccines wouldn't be harmful, but the question is whether the vaccines' potency would remain the same - in terms of one receiving a first jab of the AstraZeneca vaccine and a second that is, Sputnik V - compared to one receiving two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
He reiterated, however, that for this to be done [the mixing of vaccines], some clinical trials would be required.
"There is work currently going on to find out whether you can mix and match because AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines are actually very similar types of vaccines.
"Those ones, you could conceivably think that you could probably get a second dose of Sputnik V and still be fine. But currently, that data is not there, so the current guidance is to stick with the same type of vaccine in your two doses."
Dr. Bediako, while making this known, also highlighted the other side of the matter which could become the reality of some countries like Ghana, saying, "It is not inconceivable that it will be fine to mix [ different Covid-19 vaccines]. There is actually good evidence suggesting that you may actually improve the efficacy of the vaccines by combining them."
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