A significant portion of the Mexican population has doubts, concerns or mistrust about the Cuban Abdala vaccine that is currently being applied in our country as protection against Covid-19; In fact, about 22 million doses of Abdala will be applied in the current campaign and four million will be from the Russian Sputnik.
It is worth, therefore, knowing more about the subject. Why did Cuba choose to produce its own vaccine while the vast majority of countries in the world, including those in Latin America, chose to buy foreign vaccines? It surely matters that the teaching and practice of Medicine in Cuba has had a good prestige since the 40s and 50s of the last century, largely due to the choice of notable Spanish intellectuals and scientists who decided to emigrate to the island after Franco’s victory. Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939), and which were assimilated into academic environments, especially in Havana. Later, as well as the emphasis that Castroism placed on the promotion of sports in Cuba, it happened that during Fidel’s dictatorship there was notable support – estimated at about a billion dollars over the years – for the promotion of sports health especially at the primary level with a notable preventive approach that promoted research for the production of its own vaccines and that later allowed their massive sale to countries in the region and other latitudes, and so it is nothing new that Cuba generates its own vaccines and, given the havoc promised by the recent coronavirus pandemic, the island dedicated itself to research and production of several indigenous vaccines, with Abdala, so far, the most recognized.
There has been some concern about the secrecy with which the information about Abdala was initially handled in the global scientific and epidemiological field and there were repeated requests to Cuba to publish the data on the vaccine in scientifically analyzed journals until finally the demanding British medical journal “The Lancet” received and published, in December 2022, the manuscript of 16 Cuban authors on the effectiveness of Abdala in preventing severity and death from Covid-19, specifically in residents of Havana.
The article details that one million 300 thousand people were included (I give closed numbers), 31 thousand of them not vaccinated and the rest vaccinated, either with a complete or still incomplete schedule, with three doses applied 14 days apart and counting the results. starting 14 days after the third dose.
Of one million 200 thousand people with the complete scheme, 180 thousand became seriously ill and 75 individuals died; Of the 100 thousand who had received an incomplete scheme, 200 thousand became seriously ill and 130 died; Of the 31,000 unvaccinated, 1,000 became seriously ill and 350 people died.
The final result in the vaccinated versus the unvaccinated is interpreted as follows: The Abdala vaccine is 98% effective in those who receive the complete vaccination and 93% in the incompletely vaccinated in preventing severe Covid-19, and an effectiveness of 98% against death in those fully vaccinated and 94% in those partially vaccinated.
Cuba announced in 2022 that it would submit the Abdala vaccine to the WHO for approval; At least until mid-September, the WHO did not include Abdala among its eleven approved vaccines. Abdala has been tested only in Cuba and has also been approved in Mexico, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Venezuela and Vietnam.
The strategy promoted by Cuba is to present Abdala as a cheap and effective option so that “in the real world”, especially in low- and middle-income countries, there is an accessible option to significantly reduce the serious course of the disease and its deadly outcome. Everyone will choose the vaccine of their preference, but in the real world you can’t always choose: And this is not the end of the world, it simply is that way.
Cardiologist from UNAM. Master in Bioethics.
2023-11-11 13:53:10
#Abdala #Cuban #vaccine
