KNUST and IVI to develop typhoid vaccines

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) are set to develop typhoid and invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella vaccines.

This comes after the opening of the KNUST-IVI Collaborating Centre at Kumasi on Monday, July 5.

The centre will serve as a research and training site to implement ongoing and new collaborative projects, including disease surveillance, vaccine clinical development, vaccination campaigns, and vaccine effectiveness.

It will also support the government’s effort of producing vaccines for the COVID-19.

With the opening of the centre, both parties will begin a mass vaccination campaign as consortium members of the Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine Introduction in Africa (THECA) from July this year.

This programme aims to assess a typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) effectiveness through two clinical studies.

The studies include a cluster-randomised trial in Ghana to support the introduction of TCV into routine immunisation programs in typhoid-endemic countries in Africa.

The Vice-Chancellor of KNUST, Professor Rita Akosua Dickson, said, “With the prequalification of typhoid vaccines by the World Health Organisation (WHO), this vaccine trial will assess the impact of the vaccine on typhoid illness.”

According to him, it will also assess the safety of the vaccine and its immunogenicity.

This, he said, “will inform the country on the deployment of the vaccine.”

He noted that for the past 14 years, KNUST and IVI have worked on typhoid fever research in Ghana and adduced evidence on the high burden of typhoid fever in the country.

Again, the studies have unearthed the high cost of illness to individual families and the country and, importantly, increased microbial resistance to antibiotics used for treatment.

He, therefore, said that the centre’s development of the vaccine would help in lessening such burden on individuals, families, and the country at large.

The Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, underscored the disease’s social and economic burden, indicating that children are particularly at increased risk of the disease.

He pointed out that the severe forms and many complications, including typhoid perforations, have resulted in disabilities and deaths.

“As a government, we shall continue to provide opportunities towards nurturing our own vaccine potential future pandemics,” he added.

Dr Nsiah-Asare said the government was looking for opportunities to set up a bioequivalence centre that would support drug and vaccine trials in the future, learning from this current COVID-19 pandemic.

READ ALSO: Ghana To Start Clinical Trials Of COVID-19 Vaccines From June 28

Adding to this, the General Manager of the Agogo Presbyterian Hospital, Alex Kesse, said the centre would generate data and compliment evidence for the management of typhoid fever and related diseases.

“In the future, it is envisaged that scientists from KNUST and health personnel working in close collaboration will facilitate additional trials that may include COVID-19 vaccines,” he noted.

In this vein, he assured of the continuous collaboration of the hospital’s management “to find lasting solutions to the many diseases that affect our populations for the betterment of our communities and our country Ghana.”

On his part, Dr Florian Marks, Principal Research Associate at the University of Cambridge and Deputy Director General at IVI, said they would continue to work towards a shared vision of eliminating typhoid and other vaccine-preventable diseases in Ghana and beyond.

Typhoid fever

Typhoid fever infects and kills many in low middle-income countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana and Asia, with at least half a million lives lost to the disease and its invasive forms.

The bacterial disease spread through contaminated food, water or close contact.

Symptoms include high fever, headache, stomach pain and either constipation or diarrhoea.

People who get typhoid fever may experience pain in the abdomen or muscles, bloating, constipation, diarrhoea, nausea, or vomiting.

They may also experience fatigue, fever, chills, loss of appetite, malaise, muscle weakness, skin rashes, or weight loss.