A million Covid vaccine doses ‘to be destroyed’

About a million doses of Covid-19 vaccines may expire soon as Kenyans shun them, the Sunday Nation has learnt.

The downward trend in the intake of the shots has led to fears that thousands of doses could go to waste.

Many countries are destroying hundreds of thousands of expired and unused Covid-19 vaccine doses.

The country currently administers fewer than 200 doses of the vaccine a day, down from 2,000.

Most of those getting the vaccine are flying out of the country.

The latest coronavirus figures from the Ministry of Health indicate that the country has administered about 23 million doses of the vaccine.

About 19 million doses were given to individuals aged 18 and above while three million were administered to children aged 12 but below 18.

The number of booster doses has increased to 1.7 million. Thirty-seven per cent of Kenyans have received the recommended dosage. 

The country purchased or received from donors 27.8 million doses of the vaccine in 2021.

This means there are about four million doses waiting to be utilised. 

The ministry destroyed 840,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses this month following their expiry.

Administration of the vaccines was initially driven by fears of contracting the highly contagious Omicron variant but interest has significantly fallen with the reduction of cases.

The Ministry of Health is doing little to create awareness and have people take up the vaccine.

Apart from the release of data on Kenya’s vaccination status, the ministry stopped releasing the information to media houses. 

That created the assumption that coronavirus had been contained. 

The slow rate of vaccination means a huge number of doses will be destroyed. Wasted doses are a cause for concern around the globe.

The shelf life of a vaccine is a reflection of how long the drug retains its potency and stability at a given storage temperature. 

Shelf life is used to establish the expiry date of a vaccine.

Expiry dates do not affect the safety of the vaccine, rather are related to the potency or amount of protection the drug gives, according to the World Health Organisation.

Potency does not drop dramatically after the expiry date. It, however, goes down slowly.

Expired vaccines are not particularly unsafe or dangerous if administered, but are more likely to be associated with a poor immune response.

A Ministry of Health official in charge of vaccine centres said Kenyans are not going for the shots.

“What really scares us is that even top ministry officials are silent on the matter. They should be telling Kenyans to go for vaccination. We are the same people who will request for doses should there be another wave,” he said.

“The ministry needs to look for alternative ways of motivating the public to take up the vaccines before they expire.”

Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union Deputy Secretary, Dennis Miskellah, said the biggest loss when destroying vaccines is not the cost of the actual destruction, but the price paid for a jab that will now go to waste, as well as the potential healthcare cost of someone who may fall ill or die of a disease that could have been easily prevented.

“My worry is that we may destroy what could have saved a life from a severe outcome of a disease,” Dr Miskellah said.

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