African health officials and the United Nations say there is a looming shortage of over 2 billion syringes for both low and middle-income countries across the globe. However, there is a rise in the supply of COVID-19 doses.
The issue could affect routine vaccinations, the New York Post reported.
The United Nation’s children’s agency said the low supply would impact up to 2.2 billion auto-disposable syringes, which are needed because they lock automatically to prevent anyone from reusing them.
“We are not anticipating a significant supply shortage of the more standard syringes used in high-income countries,” the agency said in a statement. It cited the “significantly higher demand,” supply chain disruptions, national bans on syringe exports, and an unpredictable supply of vaccines as the reason.
The low supply of syringes comes at a bad time, a time when COVID-19 vaccine doses are rising. The African continent was delayed for months already and was the world’s least protected region, with less than 6% of its population of 1.3 billion fully vaccinated.
“The scarcity of syringes could paralyze progress,” the World Health Organization’s Africa director, Matshidiso Moeti, told reporters on Thursday. South Africa, Kenya, and Rwanda, are among some of the countries that have seen delays in receiving syringes, the WHO said.
The low supply will also impact childhood vaccinations and could last into 2022.
Another issue is that the shortage is testing the “very short shelf life” of vaccines. “You have to get these syringes in a short timeline,” said Sibusiso Hlatjwako of the health organization PATH, “otherwise you have vaccines expiring in your hands.”
