Must extend side-effects monitoring to 28 days after vaccination: Top official

All states should monitor vaccine recipients for Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI) for 28 days, a top public health official has said. Currently, recipients are monitored for AEFI for the first 72 hours after receiving a jab.

Dr NK Arora, member of the national AEFI Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) committee, said with more vaccines set to enter the market, monitoring for side-effects should be enhanced. He added that all AEFI data will soon be up on a public portal, a move many health experts have been calling for.

Dr Arora said out of seven crore vaccine recipients assessed so far, less than 0.5% cases have involved severe AEFIs.
"We have submitted detailed analyses to the government. The data should be out soon," he said.

He said that longer monitoring durations were essential and norm in many countries. "All states should direct local authorities to develop a mechanism which will allow recipients to report side effects for 28 days. This system should record such events and update them on the CoWIN website," he said.

Many health experts have called for the release of AEFI data. They said that publicly available information on side effects can help reduce vaccine hesitancy. All the Covid-19 vaccines are new and experts said extensive follow-ups are needed with recipients to look for unusual adverse events. There are five types of AEFIs: vaccine product-related reaction, vaccine quality defect-related reaction, immunisation error, immunisation anxiety-related reaction and coincidental event.

It's the job of the national AEFI committee to determine the type of event a recipient has suffered from.

Earlier this week, the Centre said the country can expect to have 25-30 crore doses available per month with international vaccines arriving too.

"The companies will be carrying out bridging trials with 1,500-1,600 volunteers at different sites for Johnson and Johnson and Novovax. These trials will be carried out even as the vaccines are being utilised," Dr Arora said.