I look to making a vital contribution to the Covid-19 vaccination strategy

This week, I travelled all the way from Arusha to Igwachanya Town, the ‘capital’ of the newly-established Wanging’ombe District, Njombe Region.

I did traverse these 1,000-plus kilometres, across valleys and hills, thick forested and some semi-arid lands, to attend a conference on vaccination strategy of the Covid-19 virus. I suspect the invite, from the district authorities, must have come on account, perhaps, of my having some few months ago survived a scary Corona virus bout. Or, simply, because I originally come from that part of Bongoland. On the other hand it may be because, at my advanced age I talk and look like a wise elder. Either way it should be noted that I am not an expert in the disease or any other disease for that matter.

I am one of those who were, during my high school and university days, called ‘Penguins’, because of the books we ‘swallowed’ at that time, the majority of which were from Penguin Publishers. These drastically differed from the books for students taking natural science subjects like Biology, Chemistry or Physics. But here I was, as an elderly Bongolander ‘sage’ invited to share my scientific knowledge of this scary disease pounding mankind and destroying all sectors of our social and economic life, and perhaps in due course devising its vaccination strategy.

Here, I should own up to the fact that I was among the first Bongolanders to be vaccinated against this disease as soon as the vaccines arrived here. Notwithstanding my enthusiasm to be vaccinated, it now seems not many Bongolanders are keen to follow suit. And this is a dangerous and worrisome scenario. Most Bongolanders are still looking at the disease and its vaccination as a joke or in some instances as a deliberate attempt by ‘Mzungus’ to wipe out Blacks through the vaccination programmes.

This is gross. Why do we deliberately forget the glaring fact that almost all parents presently do rush their newly born babies to be vaccinated against a variety of diseases including polio and measles. And if one goes through the history of vaccinations one comes across similar resistance when they were being introduced.

Meanwhile, in preparation for my conference I decided to do some research on vaccinations and their history. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they played a major role in saving mankind from imminent extinction. The story of vaccines begins with the long history of infectious diseases in humans. Salient to this is the early use of Smallpox material to provide immunity to that disease. Evidence exists that the Chinese employed smallpox inoculation as early as the 16th century, before the practice spread to Europe and the Americas.

But it was the English physician Edward Jenner’s innovations which began with his successful 1796 use of Cowpox material to create immunity to Smallpox. Subsequently the practise widely spread out.

The immunization was called ‘vaccination’ because it was derived from a virus affecting cows (Latin: vaca ‘cow’).

The method underwent medical and technological changes over the next 200 years and eventually resulted in the eradication of Smallpox. This was after the disease had killed between 300 - 500 million people. Louis Pasteur’s 1885 Rabbies vaccine was another game changer and was the next to make an impact on human diseases.And then at the dawn of bacteriology, developments rapidly followed. Antitoxns and vaccines against Diptheria, Tetanus, Anthrax, Cholera, Plague, Typhoud, Tuberclosis, Polio, and many more were developed through the mid - 20th century.

Innovative techniques now drive vaccine research, with combination of DNA technology and new delivery techniques leading scientists in new directions.

No wonder, in my life I have had a good share of the vaccines against several diseases. And they have played a vital role in my very existence. And being an amateur globetrotter I can not recall the number of Cholera or Typhoid jabs I have had in my life. And the fact that the current Corona virus is highly contagious makes vaccination of Bongolanders, and indeed the whole of mankind of utmost importance and our only major lifeline.

It is my hope that I will make an impact towards this end at my Igwachanya conference.