The Sunday Mail
Emmanuel Kafe
ZIMBABWE has not recorded any case of serious side effects from Covid-19 vaccines since mass inoculation began a year ago.
To date, 311 cases of suspected adverse reactions to the vaccines have been reported to the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ), with an overwhelming majority of the cases being classified as ‘minor reactions’.
While around 74 cases were classified as serious, further clinical assessment concluded that none of them were caused by the Covid-19 vaccines.
Zimbabwe has administered over four million first doses, and more than three million second doses of the Covid-19 vaccines.
MCAZ pharmacovigilance and clinical trials division chief regulatory officer, Mr Liberty Chirinda, told The Sunday Mail that most of the reported cases of reactions were minor and not serious.
“As of December 31, 2021, out of a cumulative total of four million first doses and 3,01 million second doses of Covid-19 vaccines administered, 311 suspected Covid-19 adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) cases have been reported to the MCAZ,” he said.
“Most of the reported AEFI (commonly known as reactions) were minor/non-serious, with 24 percent of the suspected reports being classified as serious.”
Health experts define an adverse effect as serious when it results in hospitalisation, extended stay in hospital, a significant reduction in functional capacity, or a life-threatening event like severe allergic reactions like blood clots or death.
He said there were no reports of vaccine recipients developing blood clots.
All reports received by the MCAZ, he said, undergo causality assessment to determine if the reactions reported were a result of the vaccines or other causes.
“After causality assessment, none of the serious reports received were found to be due to the vaccine.
“Some of the non-serious reactions were found to be due to the vaccine, and these include injection site abscess, pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, fatigue, headache, dizziness, general body weakness, itchy skin, itchy rash, nausea and vomiting.”
The patients, he added, recovered after a few days without receiving any treatment.
Mr Chirinda said while there were some reported cases of deaths resulting from the vaccines, investigations by MCAZ have found no link between the vaccines and the causes of death.
“Causality assessment was conducted for all the reports by the MCAZ pharmacovigilance and clinical trials (PVCT) committee. Of these reports, two deaths were classified as coincidental due to underlying medical conditions that were deemed to be the cause of deaths.
“Two were classified as B1 (There is no evidence that the vaccine caused the reactions, but the reactions occurred within a reasonable time frame after vaccination). The causality assessment for 11 reports was unclassifiable since post-mortem reports had not yet been submitted.
“Reclassification of these reports will be done when the post mortem reports are submitted to the MCAZ.”
Zimbabwe is administering a basket of five vaccines – Sinopharm, Sinovac, Sputnik V, Johnson and Johnson and Covaxin – which were granted Emergency Use Authorisation by MCAZ following rigorous examination.
Zimbabwe is ranked fifth in Southern Africa, after the Seychelles, Mauritius, Mozambique and South Africa in terms of the vaccination rate.
