South Africa has announced it will shortly resume using Johnson & Johnson anti-Covid vaccines, two weeks after the jab was suspended to vet risks over blood clots.
The vaccine will be included in South Africa’s anti-Covid vaccination campaign from Wednesday after being given the green light by SAHPRA, the country’s health watchdog.
Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize said in a statement that it has since been established there is a one in a million chance of getting the clot after the vaccine and that those particularly at risk appear to be women between the ages of 18 and 48 years.
The Health Minister added that with such a low probability of developing a clot, all the regulators across the world have recommended the continued use of Johnson and Johnson.
Many are depending on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to reportedly roll back the pandemic in developing countries, as it is just a single-shot jab that does not need to be kept at ultra-low temperatures.
The vaccine was briefly put on hold after a handful of Americans developed blood clots but according to US data presented Friday, of 3.9 million women who got the Johnson & Johnson shot, 15 developed serious blood clots and three died.
The majority of the confirmed cases, 13 of the 15, was aged under 50 years old. There were no reported cases among men.
The resumption of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will target health workers in particular.
Both Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca jabs are Viral Vector vaccines which are made from a modified version of a live virus, in this case, an adenovirus.
On the other hand, mRNA or messenger RNA Vaccines as produced by Pfizer and Moderna injects instructions, via a piece of genetic code, that tell your body how to make a certain protein essential to blocking the virus.
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