Researchers at the London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine have collaborated with the African CDC to conduct a continent-wide, 8-country study on vaccine confidence.

They interviewed 17,000 people from Niger to South Africa, Senegal to Tanzania, about their feelings about vaccines since 2020.

Surprisingly the researchers found an increase in overall vaccine skepticism – the feeling that vaccines were not safe – while finding that trust in COVID vaccines was still high.

Africans on the whole received the fewest vaccines last during the pandemic.

The findings come as the World Health Organization and UNICEF have reported the largest sustained fall in uptake of routine childhood immunizations in three decades: six million fewer children in Africa received routine shots for diseases including tetanus, polio, diphtheria and measles over the past two years, and rising outbreaks threaten to reverse decades of progress against preventable diseases.

There are several vaccine-preventable outbreaks on the continent at the moment, according to the WHO: Diptheria in Federal Capital of Nigeria, Meningitis across Nigeria and Niger, measles in 8/9 South African provinces, and cholera in Mozambique and DRC.

Aljazeera.