By Prior Beharry
DOCTORS and nurses in Trinidad and Tobago will be trained to ask probing questions about a patent’s allergy history when the Covid-19 vaccine is being administered.
This according to Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram during the virtual presser of the Ministry of Health on Saturday.
He was responding to a question from AZPNews.com about what safeguards that will be put in place to protect citizens from having adverse reactions to the Covid-19 vaccines.
Dr Parasram was also commenting on reports that 23 people in Norway had died after taking the Pfizer/BioTech vaccine. He said these patients were in a geriatric home setting and 13 of the cohort had hyper sensitivity allergy-type findings.
He said, “We have the benefit of time, in the sense that we are able to see the use of the vaccine being rolled out across the world.”
Dr Parasram said millions have already been vaccinated.
He noted that is vaccine would not used with people with severe allergies
Dr Parasram said, “When we train the physicians to administer the vaccine they ask probing questions about history of allergies and that goes for all existing vaccines as well.
“The way we protect our population is by training our doctors, our nurses to know the side effects profile of any vaccines that are given.”
In addition, he said, there was a regulatory aspect including being guided by the World Health Organization (WHO) which has already given emergency authorisation of the Pfizer/BioTech vaccine.
The CMO said the Technical Advisory Group of the Health Ministry continue to meet and he has looked at findings from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies which has advised against using the Pfizer/BioTech vaccine in people with allergies.
Regarding the COVAX facility, he said it has been reported that it would have 15 different vaccines to distribute and rollout was expected on schedule at the end of the first quarter in 2021.
