Temporary palsy confirmed in a few inoculated people

Temporary palsy confirmed in a few inoculated people

Health dept will continue using Sinovac batch

Dr Apisamai Srirangson, a spokeswoman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, responds to the report of short-term palsy in some Covid-19 vaccine recipients, at Government House in Bangkok on Wednesday. (Screenshot)
Dr Apisamai Srirangson, a spokeswoman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, responds to the report of short-term palsy in some Covid-19 vaccine recipients, at Government House in Bangkok on Wednesday. (Screenshot)

A few people had developed paralysis-like symptoms, but not paralysis, after Covid-19 vaccination, the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration confirmed on Wednesday.

Apisamai Srirangson, a spokeswoman for the CCSA, acknowledged a report that seven people were suspected of having partial paralysis after receiving a dose of Sinovac.

The Public Health Ministry investigated the cases. The initial finding was  that the people developed "symptoms that are not of partial paralysis but symptoms like those of partial paralysis, known as a stroke, including muscle weakness and numbness", she said.

"All had recovered by this morning," she said.

The ministry's investigation was by a panel of experienced doctors and brain pathologists, she said.

"Many people are following up information from academics, lecturers and doctors we respect. However, reports should be verified and people should consider information from all sources," Dr Apisamai said.

On Tuesday Dr Thiravat Hemachudha, director of the Health Science Centre of Emerging Diseases at Chulalongkorn University's faculty of medicine, posted on Facebook that seven people suffered from partial paralysis after receiving the Sinovac vaccine.

Six of them were in Rayong and one at the Queen Savang Vadhana Memorial Hospital in Chon Buri's Sri Racha district. he said.

On Wednesday afternoon, Dr Taweesap Siraprapasiri, a specialist at the Department of Disease Control, referred to six people he said suffered undesirable symptoms in Rayong.

Five of them were medical or health officials, and the other a hospital worker, he said.

According to Dr Taweesap, the six all received a shot of CoronaVac from vaccine batch number J202103001 between April 5 and 9, and had exhibited undesirable symptoms 5-30 minutes after inoculation.

They experienced numbness on one side of their body. Five of them also suffered limb weakness.

One of them had cancer, one had high cholesterol and obese and four took contraceptive pills.

Prof Kulkanya Chokephaibulkit of the faculty of medicine Siriraj Hospital at Mahidol University said the six had different degrees of neural symptoms and fully recovered in 1-3 days.

"Someone developed what were like stroke symptoms but we still cannot determine what caused them. An investigation, including MRI scans, found them normal. Most of them are women who are not so old and not at any risk of a stroke," she said.

"We think that the symptoms were linked with the inoculation, because they happened 5-10 minutes after injection."

An investigation panel did not find any irregularity in the vaccine batch. About 500,000 doses were distributed from the batch and so far given to more than 300,000 people.

"Such symptoms have not occurred with recipients elsewhere, and we will keep looking for such incidents in the future.

"The committee resolved that the vaccine in this batch can continue to be used because the benefits outweigh the side-effects, which were temporary," Prof Kulkanya said.

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