KARACHI: “DRAP has approved three vaccines till now. The first is Sinopharm vaccine, second is research project of Oxford University – Astrazeneca vaccine being produced by Serum Institute of India, and third is Sputnik-V, manufactured by Russian State Institute. For health workers currently we are using the Sinopharm vaccine, and soon we will get the Astrazeneca and also Russian Sputnik-V vaccines. For the very first time in the history of Pakistan we have completed the phase three clinical trial of Sinopharm vaccine based on 18,000 subjects,” said Dr Obaidullah, Director, Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP).

He was talking about the Covid-19 vaccine during the virtual seminar, titled “Reality or Myth of Covid-19 Vaccine” organized by Ziauddin University to raise awareness about the insight reality of Covid-19 vaccine.

While talking about the ingredients used in Covid-19 vaccine, he said, “In Pakistan the vaccine we are using has an inactivated, dead Covid-19 particle which develops the immunity response. Also, lung damage and death rate can also be controlled after getting a vaccine shot. All the Islamic countries like Saudia Arabia and UAE are using this. From the development to approval process of the vaccine it has been completed during the 10 months’ time period of pandemic, which is the fastest development and clinical trial of any vaccine in the whole wide world.”

Whilst answering the question about the idea amount of vaccine shot to prevent Covid-19, Dr Osama Rehman Khalid, consultant infectious disease, Dr Ziauddin Hospital said, “The vaccine we are using in Pakistan has two shots to prevent, one from the beginning and the second shot after three weeks of the first shot. But, other countries of the world are using different kinds of vaccines and each dose of vaccine varies from vaccine to vaccine.”

While answering the question about the age group recommendation for vaccines, he said “vaccine is highly recommended for the people above 18 years old. According to the research trials of vaccines it has been tested successfully between the age group of 18–60 years old, whereas the age group above 60 years has been told to get vaccinated on their own risk. As for now, the positive data of the following age group vaccine trial has not been found yet.”

“Pregnant and breastfeeding mothers are not recommended to get vaccine’s shot because pregnant and breastfeeding mothers were not part of the clinical trial of Covid-19 vaccine. But it varies from situation to situation. As there were few females who got pregnant after a few months of getting vaccinated and we didn’t get any reported problems in those pregnant women.” He was talking about the safety of vaccines for pregnant women or a breastfeeding mother.

Dr Bushra Jamil, President of The Medical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases Society of Pakistan, on question about the side effects of vaccines said there were very minor side effects like local pain, fever, eyesight effect which was typical of any vaccine. No major reported side effects for this vaccine have been observed.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021