Abstract
This study, grounded in the key stakeholders’ perspectives, highlights the critical and immediate need for the development of a new iNTS vaccine. An online survey was conducted among government officials and healthcare providers across eight African countries: Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Nigeria. The framework was built on Spring Boot and Java 8, enabling access via personal computers or mobile phones. A total of 74 out of 84 participants completed the survey. Over 50% indicated that iNTS is both a prevalent and serious disease in their respective countries. The majority (n = 70, 94.6%) identified antibiotics as the most effective treatment for iNTS disease, while 55 (67.6%) participants chose vaccination as the preferred preventive option. Respondents ranked the iNTS vaccine third. Notably, 75.7% (n = 56) emphasized the urgent need for an iNTS vaccine. Barriers to vaccine introduction were identified as insufficient funding (n = 61, 81.4%), limited awareness (n = 49, 79.7%), and challenges related to community acceptance (n = 49, 79.7%). The stakeholders’ perspectives highlight an urgent need for iNTS vaccine development. Accelerated and focused efforts are essential to address the reported pressing challenges and to pursue innovative and promising pathways for advancing iNTS vaccine development.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during the current study are not publicly available due to institutional policies but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the Wellcome Trust (grant number: 222044/Z/20/Z). The funder played no role in study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of data, or the writing of this manuscript.
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J.S.L. conceptualized the study, drafted the methods of the manuscript, and provided overall supervision; S.G. interpreted data and drafted the rest of the manuscript; Y.H. conducted data curation and analysis; G.H.J. developed the online survey tool; J.S.L., J.L.E., F.M., and J.H.K. reviewed and edited the manuscript and provided scientific support.
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Voluntary informed consent was asked at the beginning of the survey. All participants were able to go through the study objectives, aims, and procedures of the survey prior to the confirmation of voluntary informed consent. Email information which was encrypted was taken to prevent any duplicated information from the same participant and to allow participants to sign back into the survey if they could not finish the survey at once.
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Gunarathna, S., Hwang, Y., Lee, JS. et al. Need, demand, and feasibility for a new iNTS vaccine: stakeholder insights from eight African countries. npj Vaccines (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-026-01391-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-026-01391-2
