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Ensuring safety in the vaccination programme
The ‘hot topic’ being vaccination, here Specialist in Allergy Dr. Ajith Amarasinghe speaks on ensuring safety.
Sri Lanka has begun its vaccination campaign against COVID-19 infection. Our country has a strong vaccination programme lauded by the world. Its vaccine coverage percentages are one of the best in the world. The high literacy rate, excellent reception of any healthcare related messages by the population and an island-wide primary healthcare service which delivers vaccinations free of charge to any citizen are contributory factors.
However, the vaccination against COVID-19 has a few unique features. The Sri Lankan vaccination programme which is fine-tuned to deliver child and maternal vaccinations, is now attempting to deliver a vaccine to its entire population, within a short span of time. The intensity and severity of the pandemic have made this a necessity.
There are many questions in the minds of the people who are willing to take this vaccine. Most such questions are related to vaccine safety and adverse reactions to it. The COVISHIELD vaccine which is currently used in Sri Lanka is a product of Serum Institute, India, which is the same as AstraZeneca’s coronavirus recombinant vaccine. By all standards, it is a safe vaccine with few side-effects.
According to the prioritization done by the Health Ministry, the vaccine will be delivered to the population. If a person has signs and symptoms of any other acute illness, there will be a temporary postponement of vaccination. Patients with chronic disease conditions such as cardiac, neurological, respiratory, metabolic and renal and malignancies can receive the vaccine. The vaccine is not given during pregnancy, breastfeeding and for anyone below 18 years, as its safety has not been evaluated in these groups.
The common side-effects of this vaccine are pain, redness, itching and swelling at the site where the injection is given, but these would disappear in one or two days. Other than that flu-like symptoms such as feeling tired, fever, chills, headache, nausea, joint pain or muscle aches may occur. These too would settle with the commonly used medication, paracetamol, taken at regular intervals.
In a few, these symptoms may become severe making them seek medical advice. Fortunately, severe adverse reactions needing hospitalization are extremely uncommon.
The side-effects mentioned before are not allergic symptoms. The questionnaire which has to be filled before receiving the vaccine has a question as to whether the recipient has a history of allergies. This question has led to the misconception that the COVID-19 vaccine could cause severe allergic reactions.
| Population breakdown Sri Lanka’s population breakdown as at 2019, according to the Department of Census and Statistics is:
0-19 years – 7.26m (33.3% of the population) 20-29 years – 3.30m (15.1% of the population) 30-60 years – 8.54m (39.1% of the population) 60 years and above – 2.69m (12.3% of the population)
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COVID-19 deaths from March 3 – 10
The number of deaths of over-60s in the Colombo district – 60.9% (14) Therefore, the deaths of over-60s in the Western Province alone are more than half. There was a death each reported from Gampaha, Kalutara, Kandy, Anuradhapura, Kurunegala, Matara, Nuwara Eliya, Jaffna and Trincomalee. |