MOH: 3 People in S’pore Experienced Severe Allergic Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccine

Imagine this:

A deadly virus emerges and starts spreading rapidly across the globe. It infects over a 100 million people and kills nearly 3 million, forcing governments to impose border restrictions and strict movement control regulations.

Then, about a year later, researchers manage to develop several effective Covid-19 vaccines.

They are quickly shipped around the world, and mass vaccination drives begin.

Then it’s your turn to get a vaccine, and you breathe a huge sigh of relief.

But when you finally get immunised, you get a severe allergic reaction.

You’d be pretty unlucky, right? Well, this just happened to three people in Singapore.

MOH: 3 People in S’pore Experienced Severe Allergic Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccine

Three people out of the more than 113,000 people who have received the Covid-19 vaccine in Singapore have experienced anaphylaxis.

The individuals are in their 20s and 30s, according to the Ministry of Health (MOH).

They experienced multiple symptoms such as rash, breathlessness, lip swelling, throat tightness, and giddiness.

Strangely, none of these individuals had a history of anaphylaxis.

But they did have a history of allergies, including allergic rhinitis and food allergies such as to shellfish.

Fortunately, the trio have recovered from the reaction and were discharged from the hospital after a day’s observation or treatment.

A Potentially Life-threatening Allergic Reaction

Anaphylaxis is a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction that needs to be treated immediately.

It’s an allergic reaction that causes your immune system to release a flood of chemicals which make you go into shock. Your blood pressure drops suddenly and your airways narrow, making it difficult to breathe.

But, as the health ministry said, anaphylaxis can be controlled when detected and treated in a timely manner.

“As all vaccinated persons in Singapore are closely monitored, the symptoms in these three individuals were promptly detected and treated.”

Thankfully, there’s a low incidence of severe allergic reactions to the vaccine.

According to CNA, the incidence rate of anaphylaxis in Singapore is currently about 2.7 per 100,000 doses administered, which is similar to rates reported abroad.

Since anaphylaxis is a known but rare side effect of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, precautionary measures such as pre-vaccination screening and post-vaccination observation have been put in place.

This way, vaccinations can be carried out safely.

MOH reiterated that the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the risk of any potential adverse effects.

As of 27 Jan, MOH said it has received 432 “adverse event reports” from healthcare workers.

However most of the symptoms experienced in these cases are common and typically go away after a few days.

These include injection site pain and swelling, fever, headache, fatigue, body aches, giddiness, nausea, as well as allergic reactions such as itch, rash, swelling of eyes or lip.

Financial Assistance Programme

In addition to the precautionary measures, MOH introduced a new scheme to provide financial assistance in the rare event of serious side effects related to Covid-19 vaccines administered here.

Singapore citizens, permanent residents, and long-term pass holders will be eligible for the scheme.

They will receive financial assistance in the following cases:

• a one-time pay-out of up to S$10,000 will be provided to an eligible individual who is hospitalised requiring care in the high dependency or intensive care unit but subsequently recovers from medically significant serious side effects
• a one-time pay-out of S$225,000 will be provided to an individual who dies or suffers permanent severe disability as a result of Covid-19 vaccination

Applications for the pay-outs will be assessed by an independent clinical panel.

Featured Image: Miriam Doerr Martin Frommherz / Shutterstock.com

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