EUROPEAN-AFRICAN VACCINE INITIATIVE (EAVI): ACCELERATING PREVENTIVE MEASURES AGAINST CHIKUNGUNYA VIRUS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Access to vaccines against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) is limited in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where NTD burdens are high, while vaccine trials often are performed in Western populations. There is an urgent need to test, license and distribute vaccines in SSA populations at risk of NTDs, especially vulnerable groups like those with co-infections. The European-African vaccine initiative (EAVI) closes this gap by developing a European-African vaccine partnership to evaluate the safety, immunogenicity, and efficacy of prophylactic vaccines against NTDs in SSA. As a proof of concept, EAVI will evaluate a live-attenuated Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) vaccine-licensed in EU, Canada, UK, and Brazil-in healthy and in vulnerable HIV-positive adults in Africa. To achieve this, we will: 1. perform a two-armed clinical phase IIIb clinical trial in Kenya and Tanzania with rigorous safety and immunogenicity endpoints; 2. carry out in-depth immune-profiling using gold-standard and beyond state-of-the-art methodology; 3. integrate prevention and surveillance through enhanced diagnostics and One Health prospective serosurvey in humans and vector monitoring; 4. foster technology transfer, capacity building, and training in SSA as well as strategic partnerships for robust stakeholder and community engagement and uptake. EAVI's multidisciplinary expertise of clinicians, social scientists, statisticians, epidemiologists, immunologists, virologists, and vaccine manufacturers provides proven experience in implementing complex clinical trials in SSA, including in people living with HIV, and the most innovative immune-profiling technologies to leverage the full potential of the trial. It will pave the way toward access of the CHIKV vaccine in SSA to fight this NTD as well as a roadmap for future trials of other NTD vaccines, in healthy, HIV-positive and other vulnerable populations in SSA.