South Africa started a clinical trial for its oral cholera inoculation, the first developed from scratch locally in 50 years as President Cyril Ramaphosa has joined continent-wide calls for growing vaccine self-sufficiency.
Less than 1% of the world’s vaccines are made in Africa, even as infectious diseases are the leading cause of death on the continent, especially in children younger than five. Only a handful of African countries have vaccine-production facilities, with South Africa and Senegal the sole nations in the region with capacity to make them from start to finish.