They rule out bringing Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to Honduras

TEGUCIGALPA.

With the announcement that the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is in talks with pharmaceutical companies Pfizer i Modern to acquire their vaccines against the covid-19 for Latin America through the COVAX mechanism, a hope is opened to have vaccines in less time in the region.

However, Honduras is part of the mechanism Covax, You could be left out of receiving either of these two vaccines because of the cold chain required to store and transport them.

the vaccine of Pfizer which was already approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is already being applied in several countries, requires a temperature of -70 degrees Celsius for storage; while that of Modern which could be approved in the next few days, it needs to be refrigerated at -20 degrees.

The Ministry of Health only has the cooling system between -2 and -8 degrees Celsius, and the authorities established that it is not possible to invest in a cold chain to acquire these vaccines because it would delay the introduction of another vaccine in the country, so that “the decision has been made that the vaccines acquired by the country are those that will require refrigeration, not ultra-cold or freezing, but one that we can preserve and refrigerate,” he told THE PRESS the director of Extensive Immunization Program (PARE), Ida Berenice Molina.

Through the mechanism Covax, Honduras will receive as a donation a dose of the vaccine for 1.9 million Hondurans; while through the rotating bottom of the OPS a similar amount is going to be bought, the authorities of Health. But under the storage guidelines, the country could only get vaccines that are within the limits of refrigeration, such as the vaccine of AstraZeneca, Which has not been approved, and the Russian vaccine called Sputnik V, which are the ones that have the most progress in terms of their research.

“The vaccine the country is considering is the one that requires refrigeration”: Ida Berenice Molina, director of PAI.

limiting

Experts consulted by THE PRESS they indicated that the lack of vaccine storage logistics is a limitation to having them in less time, as vaccines that adapt to country conditions should be expected to be approved.

the researcher Marc Tulio Medina expressed that authorities should consider a range of possible vaccines. “My proposal is that we need to be broader in terms of which vaccines we can have access to and that the support of Covax it can be crucial, ”he said.

He stated that the Government could purchase equipment from a cold chain that requires these vaccines, as other countries are doing Latin America. He added that in the country there are many laboratories that have these cold chains.

the geneticist Edwin Herrera coincides that there are several companies or laboratories that have cold rooms with -70 degrees Celsius, so the Government could acquire these vaccines without having to implement a cold chain, but by subcontracting companies that have cold rooms to store -the. Herrera explained that the Pfizer vaccine could be applied in the main cities of the country which is where there are cold rooms with this temperature; but transporting it inland would be complicated, so for the country the vaccine is more feasible Modern which is stored at -20 degrees.

Last November 12, the Unicef and the OPS announced the call for tenders and invited all manufacturers of vaccines against the covid-19 hoping to have supplies available from the vaccine by the end of 2021 at the latest to submit their proposals.

The bidding period was six weeks, so on December 23 it concludes and the companies with which they will acquire the vaccines against the disease will be announced.

Through the mechanism Covax, the OPS i Unicef they hope to provide at least Two billion doses of vaccines for the more than 186 countries that are part of it.