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CATHERINE W GICHUKI
DOHA
WITH the influenza vaccination campaign set to kick off on September 24, the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) has assured people that the shot is safe, debunking the myth that the vaccine makes people fall ill.
In an exclusive interview with Qatar Tribune recently, the Acting Manager of the Communicable Disease, Infection Prevention and Control Section at PHCC Dr Khalid Elawad said that influenza vaccine is an inactivated (killed) virus, which means that it cannot cause a disease."The shot will cause the body to produce antibodies to protect the body from the flu virus but it will not cause flu illnesses," he said.
The official stressed that while serious side effects of the flu vaccine are very rare,side effects of the injection vaccine include soreness at the site of the injection and muscle ache.
Dr Elawad pointed out that falling ill after taking the shot of the flu vaccine can be for different reasons."One possible reason can be that the person is already infected with flu and it is in the incubation period when he gets the shot," he said.
He added,"Another reason can be that influenza vaccine does not contain all the influenza viruses. In fact, it contains only three of the prominent viruses that can cause someone hospitalisation or death, namely H1N1 and H3N2, which are influenza A viruses, and one component of the influenza B virus."
According to him, the influenza vaccines have been tested several times to ascertain its safety by different scientific organisations including the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, USA."Recent studies have shown that the influenza vaccine is safe," he said.
Regarding the misconceptions about the flu vaccine and other vaccines, he said that it is because people get information from unreliable sources."We highly recommend that people should get the information from official websites of the Ministry of Public Health, PHCC, WHO and American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)."
