The AstraZeneca vaccine is a vector-based vaccine manufactured by AstraZeneca, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is made from a weakened version of a common cold virus (Adenovirus) from chimpanzees and modified to look more like coronavirus.
But ever since the AstraZeneca’s vaccine got approval for use in the European Union in late January, it has encountered a myriad of challenges. This ranges from production problems- forcing the pharmaceutical organization to heavily reduce delivery estimates- to concerns over the vaccine’s efficacy in people over 65 years due to lack of clinical data on older people.
Things got even exacerbated recently after a 60-year-old woman died of blood issues following vaccination. This development prompted the Danish Medicines Agency to suspend the country’s vaccination program, citing “highly unusual symptoms” including a low number of blood platelets and clots in small and large blood vessels. In the wake of this, quite a number of other European nations have also suspended their vaccination programs
Allaying Nigerians’ Fears
In Nigeria, there have equally been raised concerns. Although the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) already certified the vaccine safe for use, having carried out important assessment of the vaccine. The vaccination exercise has generally not been a smooth sail.
In the words of the Agency’s boss, Mojisola Adeyeye, at least five people who took the vaccine from the National Hospital in Abuja experienced side effects like fever, chills, stomach rumbling and pain. But she refuted reports of adverse events of serious nature or special interest. The West African nation recently received 3.94 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX Facility.
In another development, the Clinical Director, Pathology Clinical Service Unit at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, United Kingdom, Dr. Olorunda Rotimi believes the AstraZeneca vaccine is ideal for Nigeria as it is much easier to distribute, added to the fact that the Oxford vaccine can be stored in a normal fridge. Unlike Pfizer’s jab – which has to be kept at an extremely cold temperature (-70C).
The seasoned pathologist did not spare words on allegations linking the astrazeneca vaccine to thromo-embolic situations, calling it political. According to him, there are no scientific proofs yet to this effect. His submission tallies with that of Dr Phil Bryan of the vaccines safety lead at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), UK, who also stated that the vaccine does not alter the DNA as widely speculated.
In all, Nigerians have no reasons to be agitated as measures are going beyond the standard practices for safety monitoring of licensed medicines in reporting vaccine events, to ensure public safety.
