“A very small number of people have had more severe allergies. Mostly a headache, sore arm and a bit of fever and fatigue in some people for a day or two.”
CAPE TOWN – There have been cases of hospitalisation and allergic reactions in some health care workers who received the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, Professor Linda-Gail Bekker, confirmed.
However, Bekker, who is a co-lead for the clinical trial, said that the adverse reactions were anticipated and manageable
“Some participants have been hospitalised. Some have been for unrelated medical conditions. For those which have had an allergic reaction and have been hospitalised for cautionary reasons have all been released without sequelae,” said Bekker.
“A very small number of people have had more severe allergies. Mostly a headache, sore arm and a bit of fever and fatigue in some people for a day or two, it is self limiting in most cases. We have not seen any related severe adverse events,” she said.“
Roll-out for healthcare workers started at the Khayelitsha District Hospital in February, with the Johnson and Johnson vaccine rolled out as part of a phase 3b study, to accumulate additional data towards obtaining regulatory authority approval.
The Johnson and Johnson jab has been shown to offer 57 percent protection against moderate to severe Covid-19 infections caused by a more transmissible new variant, the 501Y.V2 also known as B.1.351, which counts for 90 percent of cases in the country.
So far more than 107,000 healthcare workers have already received this single-jab vaccine as part of the ongoing implementation study.
Bekker also mentioned that there is a lot of enthusiasm from all health care workers to be vaccinated.
“We have been able to move people quite efficiently through our vaccination centres- we are over 100 000 health care workers within the first month,” she said.
Most common side effects from the Johnson and Johnson vaccine are:
In the arm where you got the shot:
Pain
Redness
Swelling
Throughout the rest of your body:
Tiredness
Headache
Muscle pain
Chills
Fever
Nausea
IOL
